Photo: Rifleman Cyrus ThatcherArmy Deaths In Afghanistan Overtake Iraq Toll As Blast Kills Soldier, 19 -- Times Online
The number of British lives lost to enemy fire in Afghanistan has overtaken the military death toll during the six-year campaign in Iraq.
Rifleman Cyrus Thatcher, 19, became the 137th serviceman to die from hostile fire in Afghanistan, while deaths from enemy action in Iraq, where Britain ended its combat operations last month, stand at 136.
John Hutton, the Defence Secretary, warned that casualties in Afghanistan would increase but said that the mission would ultimately succeed. “But it will not be easy,” he said in a statement to The Times. “We face a determined enemy who is willing to use cowardly and often barbaric tactics.”
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My Comment: This is a troubling trend that will only get worse with time. With no exit strategy in sight, new methods and tactics will need to be found to combat the insurgency and to keep casualties low. But with an inadequate number of boots on the ground coupled with supply and equipment shortfalls being reported .... I doubt that any new method/tactic can be successful.
U.S. casualties are also starting to spike upward .... casualties that will only increase with time as more U.S. soldiers enter the countryside.