WASHINGTON: Thirty US military personnel have been killed in the US-led campaign in Afghanistan, nine of them from hostile fire and the remainder in air crashes and other accidents, according to US defense officials.
The deaths of seven US military personnel reported by US defense officials in fighting Monday near the eastern Afghan city of Gardez was the highest toll to hostile fire on a single day since the campaign began October 7.
Six soldiers were killed in the crash of an MH-47 special forces helicopter, and a seventh was last several hours earlier when another MH-47 special forces helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade while it was on the ground.
On March 2, a soldier was killed along with three Afghan fighters in hostile action at the start of the offensive near Gardez.
On January 4, a US Army special forces sergeant was killed near Khost when a team he was leading came under hostile fire.
The only other death due to hostile fire of the campaign was that of a CIA officer killed during a prison uprising in Mazar-i-Sharif in late December.
But other US military personnel were killed in a variety of accidents during the campaign.
On December 5, three US troops were killed and 20 injured by an errant US bomb outside Kandahar.
Another 11 US troops have been killed in three aircrashes.
On October 19, two US troops were killed in the crash of a helicopter in Pakistan while standing by during the first ground assault inside Afghanistan by US special forces.
On January 9, seven marines were killed in the crash of a KC-130 aircraft in Pakistan.
On January 20, two marines were killed in the crash of a CH-53 helicopter south of Baghram.
Additionally, two US sailors were killed November 18 on an interdicted Iraqi vessel that sank.
Five other US military personnel were killed in an assortment of equipment mishaps and accidental gunshot wounds in the region since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=2796615E-mail this article