U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan at 1,974
As of Sept. 4, 2012, at least 1,974 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to an Associated Press count.
At least 1,650 military service members have died in Afghanistan as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.
Outside of Afghanistan, the department reports at least 118 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, 12 were the result of hostile action.
The AP count of total OEF casualties outside of Afghanistan is one fewer than the department’s tally.
The Defense Department also counts three military civilian deaths.
Since the start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, 17,382 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department. AP
Engine failure led Air Force to crash drone on purpose
An Air Force report says a Predator drone was intentionally flown into the side of a mountain in Afghanistan in April after it experienced irreversible engine failure.
Details of the accident appear in a report released by Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia.
The report says the drone’s crew at Springfield Air National Guard Base, Ohio, was told to crash the drone if it couldn’t safely return to Jalalabad Airbase. The report says the drone was largely still intact after the crash, but soon after an Army recovery team destroyed it and its guided missile.
The Air Force values the loss of at about $3.8 million.
The report points to the failure of a data and power cable as the root cause of the engine failure. AP
