Afghan Metrics: how's the war going then?

Afghanistan October 2001 from Google Images

Found in Wikileaks:

This important, high-level document, from 14 Jan 2009, presents 12 slides of graphs, maps, statistics and text about the war in Afghanistan. It was prepared by the Pentagon (CENTCOM), under the imprimatur of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) for Afghanistan and written at the For Official Use Only level. The document is formally titled "Metrics Brief, 2007-2008".

The documents reveals, among other matters, that the yearly civilian death toll increased during 2008 by 40% to 46%, the number of attacks on the "Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan" (GIRoA), increased by 116%, surface to Air Fire by 67%, and that Improvised Explosive Device (IED) device casualties increased by 29%.

Download PDF here

Last week in the media:

KABUL (AFP) — US President Barack Obama has accepted Kabul's request to be part of a major review of US strategy in the "war on terror" in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai and a US envoy said Sunday.

KABUL, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Afghanistan condemned on Friday the killing of civilians in a raid by Australian soldiers in the south of the country which it says was not coordinated with Afghan forces. The Australian Defence Force said five children had been killed in a shootout between Taliban insurgents and Australian Special Forces in southern Uruzgan province on Thursday, where they were "clearing" a number of compounds. The Afghan Defence Ministry said one woman and two children were killed and eight other people wounded in the attack.

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While the dead in Iraq continue to mount:

Iraq Body Count (civilian deaths)

Faces of the Fallen (US defence forces)