Coalition casualties in Afghanistan

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As of December 13, 2006, there have been 453 coalition deaths in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF): 295 American, 44 Canadian, 43 British, 19 Spanish, 18 German, 9 French, 9 Italian, 4 Dutch, 4 Romanian, 3 Danish, 2 Swedish, 1 Australian, 1 Norwegian, and 1 Portuguese.

In addition to these deaths, 62 Spanish soldiers returning from Afghanistan were killed in 2003 when their plane crashed in Turkey.

Of the American deaths, 191 died in hostile action and 104 died in non-hostile incidents. A civilian DoD member was killed in action while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom, and is included in the final death toll. However, the DoD's website does not say where he/she was killed. Four CIA operatives have also been killed in Afghanistan, two in an ambush, one in a notorious prison uprising in November 2001, and one in an accident. They are also included in the final death toll.

Of the ISAF casualties, 83 died in hostile action, 37 of which were Canadian, while 71 died in accidents.

Two Dutch soldiers were killed in a helicopter accident while preparing the Dutch ISAF mission in the south, 1 pilot was killed in an F-16 crash, and 1 committed suicide at Kamp Holland, the main Dutch base in Uruzgan province of the Dutch Task Force Uruzgan.

Among the British casualties, 14 men died when their Nimrod surveillance plane crashed due to a mechanical error in September 2006. One man was murdered by a drunken colleague who then committed suicide in December 2002.

The number of American wounded in action was 1065 as of December 13, 2006. The number of ISAF wounded is not definitively known, as no updates are provided by the ISAF.

[edit] Specific incidents

On March 2, 2002, American Army Chief Warrant Officer Stanley L. Harriman, of the Third Special Forces Group, was killed in an ambush along the road from Gardez to the Shahi Kot Valley. At least two dozen Taliban fighters were also reported killed.

On March 4, 2002, seven American Special Forces soldiers were killed as they attempted to infiltrate the Shahi Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission. Around 3 a.m. local time a MH-47 Chinook helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, causing a soldier to fall out and damaging a hydraulic line. The helicopter made an emergency landing a half-mile (800 m) away. A second helicopter on the mission picked up the first helicopter's crew and flew to where the crew member had fallen. The soldiers soon came under heavy fire, and six were killed. The remaining soldiers returned fire and retrieved the bodies before returning to base. Independent reports confirm between 500-1,000 Taliban and Al Qaida fighters were killed during Operation Anaconda.
On April 18, 2002, four Canadian soldiers were killed in what became known as the Tarnak Farm incident: Sgt. Marc Léger, Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, Pte. Richard Green and Pte. Nathan Smith. Eight other soldiers were wounded during a night-time live-fire training exercise near Kandahar and Tarnak Farms. The four were killed when an American F-16 fighter pilot, unaware of the exercise, noticed the ground fire and responded by dropping a bomb without determining who the combatants were. These were the first Canadian soldiers to be killed in combat since the Korean War. The pilot, U.S. Air Force Maj. Harry Schmidt, disobeyed an air controller's order to "standby" while information was verified. Schmidt was initially charged by the U.S. Air Force with 4 counts of involuntary manslaughter and 8 counts of assault. The charges were dropped in June 2003 and in July 2004 he was found guilty of dereliction of duty.
June 28, 2005 - 16 American soldiers from U.S. Special Operations Forces died when the MH-47 Chinook helicopter there were flying on was shot down by militants with a rocket propelled grenade in Asadabad, Afghanistan. The soldiers were en route to assist the SEALs involved in Operation Red Wing [1]. SEAL and other US Special Operations forces killed 200 or more Taliban and Al Qaida forces during the operation.
August 21, 2005 - Four American soldiers were killed and three soldiers wounded when their armored Humvee convoy was attacked by a remote control bomb planted on a bridge in Zabul Province [2].
April 22, 2006 - Four Canadian soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb exploded next to their armored G-Wagon vehicle. Two of the soldiers were members of Canada's regular army and the other two were reservists.
May 5th, 2006 - A convoy of Italian troops are targeted by a roadside bomb in Kabul. The explosion kills three Italian soldiers and leaves three others wounded [3] [4]. ^{[citation needed]}
May 5th, 2006 - A US helicopter crashes in Kunar province during an anti-Taliban operation. The crash kills all 10 US soldiers on board, but the crash was said not to have been caused by enemy fire according to the US Military. Several Hundred Taliban fighters were confirmed killed during the offensive, according to a NATO spokesman.
October 7th, 2006 A soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed in an attack in southern Afghanistan, following the ignition of an explosive device and small arms fire in Panjwayi district 20 kilometres west of Kandahar city in the morning. The nationality of the soldier was not released, though there around 2,000 Canadian soldiers based in Kandahar under NATO-led ISAF making the Canadian contingent the largest part of the ISAF in Kandahar Province.[5]
November 25, 2006 - Utah National Guard officer Lt. Scott B. Lundell was killed in a firefight against Taliban rebels with small arms and rocket propelled grenades.
November 27, 2006 - Two Canadian soldiers were killed after a suicide car-bomber attacked a convoy of troops on the outskirts of Kandahar city. The two soldiers were in a Bison eight-wheeled armoured personnel carrier that had left Kandahar airfield minutes earlier when the civilian vehicle drove alongside and detonated explosives. [6]
November 28, 2006 - U.S. Army Spc. Jeffrey G. Roberson, 22, of Phelan, Calif. and Staff Sgt. Michael A. Shank, 31, of Bonham, Texas, were killed when a bomb blew up near their vehicle while on maneuvers in Logar, Afghanistan.[7]
December 5, 2006 - A British Royal Marine has been killed and a second injured in a battle with Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan. UK troops mounted an offensive on a Taliban-held valley but withdrew after fighters launched a ferocious counterattack. The Taliban forces had withstood airstrikes and artillery fire during the 10-hour battle. Several militant gunmen are believed to have been killed in the operation, in which the Marines were assisted by US Army Apache helicopters and Air Force B-1 Lancer bombers. The operation was launched on the outskirts of the village of Garmser to dislodge Taliban forces who had been responsible for attacks on the town in recent days. The injured were airlifted to the UK hospital in Camp Bastion. The second Royal Marine was in a stable condition. The attack began when the Marines moved across a bridge over the Helmand River under a full moon shortly before daybreak and began sweeping south through wheatfields. The Marines initially faced only sporadic resistance. But when they advanced, Taliban fighters launched an organised riposte with heavy weapons and tried to outflank the British troops.[8]