U.S. death toll in Afghanistan hits 500

KABUL, Afghanistan - The deadliest three months for American forces in Afghanistan have pushed the U.S. death toll to at least 500, forcing a war long overshadowed by Iraq back into the headlines.

Larger, more sophisticated enemy attacks have also caused a sharp rise in Afghan civilian deaths - at least 472 in the first seven months of 2008, mostly in suicide bombings, according to an Associated Press count.

In all, at least 600 Afghan civilians were killed from January through July, a 30 percent increase from the same period last year, according to AP figures compiled from coalition and Afghan officials. That includes at least 128 killed by U.S. or NATO forces.

About 33,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, the highest number since the war began, meaning more troops than ever are patrolling the country's mountainous terrain and are exposed to ambushes and roadside bombs.

The U.S. military had 65 deaths in May, June and July, by far the deadliest three-month period in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.

In July, more U.S. troops died in Afghanistan than in Iraq for the month, for the first time since the Iraq war started in 2003. In all, 92 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan this year, a pace that would surpass last year's death toll of 111.

The spike in violence has led U.S. leaders, including both major presidential candidates, to call for adding troops here.

More than ever, the U.S. government recognizes that the situation in Afghanistan "is serious and needs to be dealt with," said Seth Jones, an Afghanistan expert at the Rand Corp., a Washington think tank that often does studies for the Pentagon.

Overall, at least 500 U.S. service members have died in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in support of the Afghan mission, according to an AP analysis based on Pentagon news releases.

"In terms of milestones, it's important to point out that no casualty is more significant than any other," said Lt. Col. Mark Wright, a Pentagon spokesman. ". . . Each loss of life is equally tragic."

The AP count is based on information from U.S., NATO or Afghan officials, often impossible to independently verify because of the remote or dangerous locations of the incidents.

The Defense Department count often lags by several days. Its most recent count, issued Saturday, showed 496 U.S. troop deaths in and around Afghanistan.

Counting coalition troops, Taliban extremists and Afghan civilians, more than 3,000 people have died in violence this year, according to the AP count.

In the past, the Taliban appeared to try to minimize civilian casualties by launching its large-scale attacks primarily against U.S., NATO or Afghan troops.

But this year, a February bombing at a Kandahar dog-fighting competition killed more than 100 people, mostly civilians. An attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul last month killed more than 60.

Steven Simon, a senior fellow in Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the recent attacks with high civilian death tolls reflected a migration of both tactics and fighters from Iraq to Afghanistan.

He said in an e-mail, "Al-Qaeda's leadership seems to be looking at the Afghan theater as the next big thing."

Afghan and U.S. officials say a big reason for the spike in violence is that militaries use sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan where they can arm and train fighters who launch attacks across the border on U.S. and Afghan forces. More al-Qaeda fighters have been using the region to launch attacks than in previous years, U.S. officials say.

Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, attributed the rise of violence principally to two factors: a peace agreement earlier this year between Pakistan's government and some extremists in its tribal areas near the Afghan border, and support given by Pakistan's intelligence agency to Taliban fighters.

Pakistan denies it is helping Taliban fighters or has entered into peace agreements with extremists who launch attacks in Afghanistan.