(Feb. 27) -- This week, as reported by the Web site iCasualties.org, the so-called Forgotten War produced an attention-getting headline as the U.S. military, whose Afghanistan surge strategy is now in full-swing, lost its 1,000th soldier in that country. A look back at some of the key incidents and factors that contributed to that total -- and at some other somber figures the 8-year-old conflict has produced.

How we got to 1,000 deaths:

Current troop levels

30,000 number of U.S. troops Obama is sending to Afghanistan this year
100,000 number of troops expected to be in Afghanistan after the increase source

Eight deadly days

Date	Casualties Key: Accident Attack
01/09/2002	Seven soldiers die in one of the war's earliest multi-casualty days as a military plane crashes in Pakistan. The plane was sending supplies into Afghanistan; human error was pinpointed as the likely cause.
04/06/2005	Fifteen soldiers, along with three American citizens, die in a helicopter crash during a sandstorm.
06/28/2005	In the deadliest single day in Afghanistan for U.S. soldiers, 16 die after a helicopter is shot down by insurgents. Three soldiers also die in an unrelated incident.
05/05/2006	A plane crashes during combat, killing 10, but hostile fire reportedly wasn't involved in the incident.
07/13/2008	Ten soldiers are killed in two separate attacks -- nine in an ambush that included rocket fire and one as a result of an IED.
10/03/2009	A massive assault by as many as 300 militants kills eight soldiers in Nuristan province, while an IED claims another's life.
10/27/2009	Two separate helicopter crashes involving three different aircraft kill 11 soldiers.
12/30/2009	Eight soldiers and CIA members were killed in a surprise attack on a base near the Pakistan border. The suicide bomber was an agent from Jordan working for the U.S. source, source

The IED threat

IEDs are the single biggest cause of soldier deaths. During the war's more than eight years, improvised explosive devices have gone from nonentity to everyday menace. While large attacks get the headlines, IEDs have proven most deadly, especially in the past 14 months.

644
of the 1,000 U.S. soldier deaths caused by IEDs
310
IED deaths from 2002 to 2008
334
IED deaths in 2009 and early 2010 source

How the U.S. toll compares:

American casualties as a share of coalition casualties

For every 10 coalition soldiers who have died in battle, six have been American. Another 1 1/2 are British (for a total of more
than 260), and the rest of the deaths comprise 24 other countries, the most significant of which is Canada with 140. Five countries have had just one just member of their military die, while one soldier is unaccounted for. source

American military casualties vs. Afghan civilian deaths

1,007
U.S. military casualties in the Afghan war from 2001 to 2010, according to war-casualty tracker iCasualties.com
6,053
Afghan civilian casualties in the war from just 2007 to 2009, according to the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan

» Caveats: Due to the nature of the early stages of the war (particularly the use of airstrikes, which were recently limited), it's hard to get a handle on exactly how many Afghan citizens have died since 2001. Some war monitors, such as Human Rights Watch and University of New Hampshire Professor Marc Herold, have done much heavy lifting to try to determine a total, but a precise number may be elusive. What's clear is that it's significantly higher than the military death toll for the conflict.

American military casualties in Afghanistan vs. Iraq

These numbers REFLECT tactical differences. The Iraq war had a heavier ground presence for much of the conflict. But in 2009, the Pentagon began to reduce airstrikes on Afghanistan in 2009 in an effort to limit civilian casualties. While the shift has reportedly been successful at that, it also was a contributing factor in last year's rise in soldier casualties. source

Ernie Smith is the editor of ShortFormBlog, a news site equally obsessed with numbers and bad jokes.