June Marks NATO's Deadliest Month of Afghan War

(June 24) -- June has become the deadliest month for foreign forces in the entire nine-year war in Afghanistan.

The number of troop deaths so far this month crossed the grim milestone quietly, overshadowed by President Barack Obama's acceptance of the top U.S. commander's resignation for his comments in a magazine profile in which he and his aides criticize the Obama administration and poke fun at several civilian officials overseeing the war. Gen. Stanley McChrystal was replaced Wednesday by Gen. David Petraeus, who has overseen the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as head of the U.S. Central Command.

The death toll for NATO troops in Afghanistan reached 76 on Wednesday, exceeding the previous monthly record of 75 deaths in July 2009. Four more troops were killed later in the day in a vehicle accident in southern Afghanistan, bringing this month's toll so far to 80 deaths.

A U.S. military spokesman told The Associated Press that the four were not Americans, but did not release their nationalities.

Forty-six deaths in June have been of U.S. troops. The deadliest month for Americans in Afghanistan was October 2009, when 59 were killed.

Last week, a U.N. report cited increased violence in Afghanistan this year, with a 94 percent increase in roadside bombs and double the number of complex suicide attacks compared to last year.

It attributed the rise in part to more foreign troops being on the ground, fighting more with the Taliban and its followers. Obama has sent an additional 30,000 American troops to the country, most of whom are taking up positions in the Taliban's spiritual homeland in Afghanistan's strife-torn south.

Source: icasualties.org.