WAR DEAD

U.S. Foreign Affairs BLOODLETTING Continues
WAR DEAD, CASUALTIES OF WAR
Update January 6, 2010

From Al Jazeera
December 24, 2009-January 6, 2010
PAKISTAN/KASHMIR January 6
Suspected double U.S. drone attack kills at least 15 people in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region. Wednesday’s strikes occurred in North Waziristan where several opposition groups have staged attacks inside the district and into bordering Afghanistan. … At least 74 U.S. drone missile strikes have killed close to 700 people in Pakistan since August 2008.

Next door in Kashmir
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan. Both countries claim sovereignty over all the territory. Groups have been fighting for independence from India or a merging with neighboring Pakistan, since 1989. Almost 70,000 people have died in the conflict.

“A bomb attack kills three security personnel outside an army base in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, close to the line separating Kashmir from India’s territory.… The bomb exploded outside a barracks in Tarar Khal, a small village with a local population of around 6,500, 150 kilometers east of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir.”
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/01/20101613294018697.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/01/201016121259496488.html

AFGHANISTAN January 6
Foreign troops have been in Afghanistan since 2001 when the United States and United Kingdom invaded the country in order to remove from power “Taliban accused of harboring al-Qaeda operatives.”

The United Nations is reporting that 2009 has been the deadliest year of the war in Afghanistan.
“Incidents of suicide bombings, attacks using improvised explosives devices and gun battles grew by 65 per cent between August and October 2009 (about 40 per day), the period of Afghanistan’s corruption-marred elections. Civilian casualties increased by 12 per cent during the same period. The incidence of attacks by the Taliban also increased ─ including in the centre of Kabul, the capital, and the north and east of the country.

“On Wednesday, four children and a policeman were killed and scores of people injured, including three U.S. soldiers, in a roadside bomb explosion in the eastern Nangrahar province.” http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/01/20101615442118658.html

A Jordanian official tells Al Jazeera “a suicide bomber who attacked a U.S. base in Afghanistan killing eight people last week was an informant and not a double CIA-Jordanian intelligence agent as had been previously reported.

“Hammam Khalil al-Balawi, identified by Al Jazeera sources in Afghanistan on Tuesday, killed seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer at a U.S. base in Khost province on Wednesday (December 30, 2009) last week. Al-Balawi allegedly attacked the base as an al-Qaeda operative, with U.S. media and intelligence reports saying on Tuesday that he was a ‘double agent’ working for Jordanian intelligence.”
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/01/20101693624289948.html

IRAQ December 25/24
Attacks in Iraq have killed at least 34 people and injured more than 100. Officials said a double explosion struck near a bus station in Babil province on Thursday (December 24), killing 15 people including a provincial councilor.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/2009122414310924426.html

At least four people died and 28 sustained injuries in bomb attacks against Shiite Muslim sites in Baghdad.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/2009122317181777790.html

From Casualty sites
Iraq, Afghanistan (exact figures and costs of war are unobtainable)

American Military Casualties in Iraq – “Human cost of occupation”: since the war began March 19, 2003: 4,372
Since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 144;
Wounded 31,613-over 100,000;
U.S. veterans with brain injuries: 320,000;
Suicides 18 a day [January 1 update at Anti-war dot com: “Casualties in Iraq, The Human Cost of Occupation” (Edited by Margaret Griffis) http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

Iraq Body Count figures: 94,939-103,588 [http://www.iraqbodycount.org/]

Iraq Coalition Casualty (war dead) figures:

IRAQ: U.S. Coalition total: 4,691; U.S.: 4,373
AFGHANISTAN: Coalition total: 1,572; U.S.: 951 [http://icasualties.org/oif/]

Just Foreign Policy: “The number is shocking and sobering. It is at least 10 times greater than most estimates cited in the US media, yet it is based on a scientific study of violent Iraqi deaths caused by the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003.” Just Foreign Policy figures--Iraqi Deaths: 1,366,350