Nearly 9,000 Afghan Security Personnel Killed Since 2013, US Commander Says Security Forces Are ‘Winning’

MatthewBrosseau/iStockphoto/Thinkstock(KABUL, Afghanistan) — Nearly 9,000 Afghan security personnel have been killed in fighting with the Taliban in the last two years.

Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson, the number-two U.S. commander in Afghanistan, announced the figures at a Wednesday statement on the U.S. drawdown in Afghanistan. In his opening statement, Anderson said that 4,634 Afghan Army and Police have been killed in action in 2014, up from 4,350 in 2013. He did not, however, provide fatality numbers from earlier than 2013.

“We started off with 54,000 service members here, when I took over in January, from 48 nations,” Anderson said, noting that that figure is down to 38,000 soldiers from 44 countries.

While Anderson said the Taliban “amassed some forces in a few provinces,” he made clear that those forces “were beaten back.”

“The Afghan National Security Forces are winning,” he said Wednesday, “and this is a hugely capable fighting force who have been holding their ground against the enemy.”

Officials have acknowledged that Afghan military fatalities have risen significantly as Afghan forces took the lead for security from U.S. and NATO troops, but never to this level of specificity. Anderson could not provide statistics prior to 2013 to show how much the fatality numbers have gone up.

For comparison, 4,478 U.S. military service members died in the war in Iraq, and 2,210 Americans have died in Afghanistan since 2001.

Afghan security officials are working to boost their recruiting to deal with the high casualty rates and attrition rates, Anderson said.

The Afghan police is working to change tactics and procedures to better protect their forces in the field against roadside bombs. Afghan police forces are believed to make up the bulk of the casualties, as they are less well trained and equipped than Army units and are frequently the target of Taliban attacks.

“They do need to decrease their casualty rate,” said Anderson, noting that improving their medical evacuation capabilities could help bring down the number of fatalities. Afghan forces are currently carrying out 88 percent of all medical and casualty evacuations in Afghanistan through a combination of air and ground transportation.

“All those things have to continue to improve to reduce those numbers because those numbers are not sustainable in the long term,” Anderson said.

The force of 20,000 American troops currently in Afghanistan is scheduled to be reduced to 9,800 by year’s end. The remaining U.S. forces will focus on advising and assisting the Afghan military, though about 1,000 of them will still conduct counter-terrorism missions, U.S. officials said.

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