US troop deaths double in Afghanistan

The number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan has roughly doubled in the first three months of 2010 compared to the same period last year as Washington has added tens of thousands of additional soldiers to reverse the Taliban's momentum. Those deaths have been accompanied by a dramatic spike in the number of wounded, with injuries more than tripling in the first two months of the year and trending in the same direction based on the latest available data for March. United States officials have warned that casualties are likely to rise even further as the Pentagon completes its deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and sets its sights on the Taliban's home base of Kandahar province, where a major operation is expected in the coming months."We must steel ourselves, no matter how successful we are on any given day, for harder days yet to come," Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a briefing last month.
In total, fifty seven U.S. troops were killed here during the first two months of 2010 compared with twenty eighth in January and February of last year, an increase of more than one hundred percent, according to Pentagon figures compiled by The Associated Press. At least twenty American service members have been killed so far in March, an average of about point eight per day, compared to thirteen, or point four per day, a year ago. The steady rise in combat deaths has generated less public reaction in the United States than the spike in casualties last summer and fall, which undermined public support in the U.S. for the eight-year-old American-led mission here. Fighting traditionally tapers off in Afghanistan during winter months, only to peak in the summer. After a summer marked by the highest monthly death rates of the war, President Barack Obama faced serious domestic opposition over his decision in December to increase troops in Afghanistan, with only about half the American people supporting the move. But support for his handling of the war has actually improved since then, despite the increased casualties.