KABUL, Afghanistan - Despite U.S. reports of progress on the battlefield, American troops were killed in the first half of this year at the same pace as in 2010 -- an indication that the war's toll on U.S. forces has not eased as the Obama administration moves to shift the burden to the Afghans.
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A Marine comforts Amy Balduf of Richmond, Tenn., at Arlington National Cemetery on June 15. Her husband, Marine Sgt. Kevin Balduf, was killed in Afghanistan. The number of U.S. troops killed there so far this year is on pace with 2010.
2011 Associated Press file
While the overall international death toll dropped by 14 percent in the first half of the year, the number of Americans who died remained virtually unchanged, 197 this year compared with 195 in the first six months of last year, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
Americans have been involved in some of the fiercest fighting as the U.S. administration sent more than 30,000 extra troops in a bid to pacify areas in the Taliban's southern heartland and other dangerous areas. U.S. military officials have predicted more tough fighting through the summer as the Taliban try to regain territory they have lost.
President Obama has begun to reverse the surge of American forces, ordering a reduction of 10,000 by the end of the year and another 23,000 by September 2012. But the U.S. military has not announced which troops are being sent home, or whether they will be withdrawn from any of the most violent areas in the south and east.
Rear Adm. Vic Beck, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Kabul, said he couldn't comment specifically on the U.S. death count, but noted that the casualties were unchanged.
He attributed the overall decline in the international toll to coalition progress on the battlefield, including the discovery of a rising number of militant weapons caches. He also said Afghan security forces are increasingly taking the lead, although recent violence has raised concerns about their readiness to secure their own country.
Beck said insurgents were shifting their focus to attacking civilians, pointing to last week's attack against the Inter-Continental, a luxury hotel in Kabul, that left 20 people dead.
"The enemy is taking the fight more to innocent Afghan civilians because we're taking it to them pretty hard on the battlefield," he said.
According to the AP tally, 271 international troops, including the Americans, were killed in the first half of the year -- down 14 percent from the 316 killed in the first six months of last year.
With the American deaths virtually unchanged, the decline reflects a drop in deaths of troops from other contributing nations. In the first half of the year, 74 of these troops -- from countries like Britain, France and Australia -- died, compared with 121 in the first six months of last year.
In the most recent deaths, NATO said two coalition service members were killed in roadside bombings -- one Saturday in the west who was identified as an Italian, and another Friday in the south whose nationality was not available.
By contrast, a recent U.N. report found that May was the deadliest month for civilians since it began keeping track in 2007, and it said insurgents were to blame for 82 percent of the 368 deaths recorded. The U.N. does not usually release monthly civilian casualty figures but said it was compelled to do so in May because of the high number.
The Taliban have denied targeting civilians and insist coalition claims that insurgents have suffered heavy losses at the hands of foreign troops are false.
2010
An Afghan policeman inspects the site of a suicide car bomb blast in Kandahar on Dec. 27. A suicide car bomber killed at least three Afghan police officers on Monday as they lined up outside a bank to collect their salaries.
A wounded Afghan policeman is carried away by his colleagues during a gunbattle in Kunduz, north of Kabul, on Dec. 19. Teams of Taliban militants assaulted the Afghan army in the north of the country and in the capital, killing at least 10 members of the security forces.
U.S. troops take pictures as Hollywood actor and comedian Robin Williams performs during a United Service Organizations (USO) show at U.S. embassy in Kabul on Dec. 17.
Marines from 1st Battalion 8th Marines watch a CH-53 helicopter drop flares as it leaves Musa Qala in Helmand province on Dec. 14. The U.S.-led NATO alliance in Afghanistan warned that foreign soldiers will face further violence in 2011, capping what has been the deadliest year of the war on record.
An injured Afghan National Arm soldier is rushed to a waiting medevac helicopter from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade which arrived on scene where a van packed with explosives detonated beside a small joint outpost near the village of Sangsar, southern Afghanistan, Dec. 12. Six American soldiers were killed and more than a dozen American and Afghan soldiers were wounded, in the explosion which blasted a large hole a the thick wall, causing the roof to collapse on those inside.
British Prime Minister David Cameron is greeted upon arrival by Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Dec.7 in Kabul. The leaders met in light of diplomatic cables, published by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, disclosing criticisms from Afghan leaders of the UK's presence in the country.
President Barack Obama meets with troops at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan on Dec. 3.
U.S. helicopter flies near a new gold mine in Nor Aaba in Takhar province on Nov. 26. The hills around dusty Nor Aaba are laced with gold but villagers have blocked work on a new mine in a dispute over jobs, a warning that Afghan plans to ramp up mining may bring trouble as well as treasure.
Lance Corporal Luz Lopez, 21, a US Marine with the FET (Female Engagement Team) 1st Battalion 8th Marines, Regimental Combat team II, plays with Afghan babies during a village medical outreach in Boldoc, Helmand province , Afghanistan on Nov. 23. There are 48 women presently working along the volatile front lines of the war in Afghanistan; deployed as the second Female Engagement team participating in a more active role, gaining access where men can't. The women, many who volunteer for the 6.5 month deployment, take a 10 week course at Camp Pendleton in California where they are trained for any possible situation, including learning Afghan customs and basic Pashtun language.
Three boys pose at an orphanage in Herat on Nov 23. Mohammad Unes Farooqi, an Afghan immigrant living in the U.S., donated nearly $50,000 to open an orphanage in the city. Afghanistan is considered one of the poorest countries on earth, with the highest proportion of orphans and widows in the world.
Afghan men take home a sheep bought at a livestock market on the eve of Eid al- Adha festival in Kabul, Nov. 15. Muslims worldwide celebrated Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice on Nov. 16, with the sacrificial killing of sheep, goats, cows or camels. The slaughter commemorates the biblical story of Abraham, who was on the verge of sacrificing his son to obey God's command, when God interceded by substituting a ram in the child's place.
A woman separates crocus flowers during the saffron harvest near the village of Goriyan in Herat on Nov. 8. Around 2,500 farmers, in eight provinces, are working on saffron farms for export mostly to India and some European countries. The trade in saffron has an estimated annual value of more than $200 million. Agricultural produce programs are being offered to farmers as an alternative to the harvesting of poppies, used in the production of heroin.
An Afghan boy prepares popcorn in a factory in Kabul, Nov. 8. Despite the progress of the past few years, Afghanistan's economy is in shambles and highly dependent on foreign aid, agriculture and trade with neighboring countries. Much of the population continues to suffer from shortages of housing, clean water, electricity, medical care and jobs.
An Afghan man is detained by U.S. Marines from the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, Bravo Company at their base in Taliban after a battle against insurgents in the Musa Qala district in Helmand province Nov. 7.
People prepare to bury the victims of a roof collapse in Baghlan on Oct. 28. More than 60 people, mostly women and children, were killed when a roof collapsed on a wedding party.
Pfc. Brandon Voris, of Lebanon, Ohio, waits out a sandstorm at a remote outpost near Kunjak in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province on Oct. 28. Voris is a member of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, Alpha Company.
Supporters of Afghan parliamentary candidates from Herat province protest on Oct. 25 against alleged 'massive fraud' during the vote. Election officials said final results could be delayed because a U.N.-backed complaint commission is expected to look into thousands of allegations of fraud and complaints, mainly from losing candidates.
Marines Brandon Voris of Lebanon, Ohio, and James Edward Orr of Eufaula, Ala., go through letters and gifts from home at their remote combat outpost near Kunjak in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province on Oct. 24.
Female prisoners hang out inside the courtyard of the women's prison in Mazar-e-Sharif on Oct. 22. According to Afghanistan's Ministry for Women, many of the females are being detained for "moral crimes". These so-called crimes include everything from running away from home, refusing to marry, marriage without proper family consent and attempted adultery. In some cases women are put away for many years.
Marines prepare to carry Cpl. Jorge Villarreal of San Antonio, Texas, to a MEDEVAC helicopter on Oct. 17 in Kajaki. Villarreal was killed on the patrol after stepping on an improvised explosive device.
An Afghan bride is held by the groom as they leave for the wedding ceremony in a taxi on Oct. 14 in Bamiyan.
Afghan soldiers hike towards the hills where a cargo plane crashed on the outskirts of Kabul on Oct. 13. The plane, transporting supplies for NATO's forces in Afghanistan, crashed soon after taking off from Bagram airbase. All seven crew members were killed .
An Afghan boy asks for more money from Capt. Nicholas Stout as he pays local Afghans for participating in a jobs program sponsored by the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army on Oct. 9 near Zoldag Mongah west of Kandahar. Men are paid up to $20 a day; children are paid $5 to $10, mostly for work cleaning up trash and clearing ditches.
Residents hurry past burning fuel tankers along the road near Nowshera, located in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, on Oct. 7. Gunmen in Pakistan set fire to up to 40 supply trucks for NATO troops in Afghanistan.
An aerial image shows the backup on Oct. 4 created by the closure near the Torkham crossing at the Khyber Pass between Pakistan and Afghanistan. These trucks are more than just supplies that are not making it to Afghanistan; the increasingly densely packed logjams are inherently vulnerable to even unsophisticated militant attacks. When the Afghanistan-Pakistan border is open, it sees some 100 trucks per day carrying vehicles, supplies and materials for the war effort.
U.S. soldiers from the Alpha Battery 3/2 SCR Striker Brigade prepare for an artillery strike at Forward Operation Base Wilson, Kandahar province, on Oct. 4.
Afghan singer Farhad Darya performs during a concert for Afghan women to mark International Peace Day in Kabul on Sept. 22. Farhad 'Darya' Nasher is an Afghan-American singer and composer, and Good Will and Peace Ambassador for Afghanistan to the United Nations. During the Taliban regime, music was banned across the country as it was considered un-Islamic.
Newly trained female officers of the Afghan National Army attend their graduation ceremony in Kabul on Sept. 23.
Afghan election workers wait for vote count papers to feed the tally at Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission in Kabul on Sept. 21.
Election posters hang on utility poles in Kabul on Sept. 5. The Taliban vowed to attack polling places during the Sept. 18 parliamentary elections, warning Afghans not to participate in what it called a sham vote.
A member of the Afghan National Police teaches new female recruits to use an automatic weapon at a police base south of Herat in western Afghanistan on Sept.16.
U.S. military personnel in Kabul on Sept. 11 participate in a candlelight service to honor those who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks.
Customers line up outside a branch of Kabul Bank in Herat on Sept. 4 to empty their accounts even as officials tried to assure depositors that the country's largest private bank was not in danger of collapsing. The run began on Sept. 1, a day after major U.S. newspapers reported that two of its top executives were to be replaced by the central bank amid allegations of mismangement and unorthodox loans.
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai welcomes Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, center, watched during their meeting in the Black sea resort of Sochi, Russia on Aug. 18. Dmitry Medvedev received the presidents of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan to discuss the Afghanistan settlement, the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking as well as regional trade and economic cooperation.
A man gives a massage to a customer in a "Hamam" or public bath in Kabul, Aug. 10.
A composite photo showing the 10 civilian volunteers affiliated with a Christian aid group who were killed during a medical mission in northern Afghanistan on Aug. 5. From top left, Glen D. Lapp, Tom Little, Dan Terry, Thomas Grams, Cheryl Beckett, Brian Carderelli, Karen Woo, Daniela Beyer, Mahram Ali and Jawed.
U.S. Aid Workers Killed in Afghanistan
U.S. Army soldiers assist Pvt. James Stennett from 1-320th Alpha Battery, 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, after he was caught in the blast of an improvised mine near COP Nolen, in the volatile Arghandab Valley, on July 29.
A crowd of Afghan protesters destroy a car during clashes with police following Friday prayers in Kabul on July 30. Rioting erupted when scores of Afghan men set fire to two U.S. embassy vehicles after one collided with a civilian car killing a number of occupants, officials and witnesses said.
Afghan men gather to watch a concert near Band-i-Amir lakes outside the central Afghan province of Bamiyan during a local annual festival aimed at promoting tourism in the central highlands on July 29. Bamiyan, some 124 miles northwest of Kabul, stands in a deep green, lush valley stretching through central Afghanistan, on the former Silk Road that once linked China with Central Asia and beyond. The town was home to two nearly 2,000-year-old Buddha statues before they were destroyed by the Taliban, months before their regime was toppled in late 2001.
U.S. Army troops from the 1st Battalion 320th Alpha Battery, 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, duck as an Afghan soldier fires a rocket propelled grenade towards insurgent positions at Combat Outpost Nolen, in the volatile Arghandab Valley on July 22.
U.S. Army soldiers from the 2nd Platoon Charlie Company, 2-508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division jump on Lt. Chris Farrington of Pownal, Maine, to give him a "pink belly" on his last day in charge of the platoon at Combat Outpost Terra Nova, Kandahar on July 18.
Afghans collect fuel from a tanker shot up in an attack on a NATO supply convoy in Baghlan province, north of Kabul on July 6.
U.S. Army Sgt. Richard Hamburg, in blue, jumps on a friend while sumo wrestling during an Independence Day BBQ for troops at Kandahar Airfield on July 4. Gen. David Petraeus formally assumed command of the 130,000-strong international force in Afghanistan today replacing Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
Afghan security forces stand outside a USAID compound in Kunduz on July 2, after it was stormed by militants wearing suicide vests. Six suicide bombers attacked the compound Friday, killing at least four people and wounding several others, officials said.
U.S. Army soldiers carry a critically wounded American soldier on a stretcher to an awaiting MEDEVAC helicopter from Charlie Co. Sixth Battalion, 101st Airborne Combat Aviation Brigade, Task Force Shadow on June 24, near Kandahar. As combat operations begin to escalate near Kandahar, the 101st Airborne MEDEVAC unit transports casualties of war as well as sick and injured local residents.
Afghan farmers harvest wheat outside Kabul on June 24.
Spc. Christian Hoffman of Sanford, Florida, a medic with the 82nd Airborne Division, listens for the heartbeat of a gravely wounded man after a civilian truck hit a buried mine on June 21 in Khushi Khona, near the Turkmenistan border. Eight local Afghan men were aboard the truck, returning from a routine trip to buy sheep.
Smoke billows up from the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on May 18. A Taliban suicide car bomber struck a NATO convoy, killing six troops, five Americans and one Canadian, officials said. Twelve Afghan civilians also died - many of them on a public bus in rush-hour traffic.
An Afghan boy prepares to bowl a ball while playing cricket inside the ruins of a compound, which use to be home to a timber manufacturing factory in the late 1980's, on May 14.
William Harvey, a classical violinist from Indiana teaches students at the National Institute of Music in Kabul on May 11. In this city where music was illegal less than a decade ago, a new generation of children is being raised to understand its joys.
U.S. Army Pfc. Jermaine Chambers of Brooklyn, N.Y., walks through a wheat field just below an outpost while on patrol with 1st Platoon, Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment of the 5th Stryker Brigade, in Kandahar province on May 5.
Members of the Afghanistan women's national boxing team attend a training session in the National Olympic Stadium on May 3 in Kabul. After facing years of restrictions and oppression during the period of Taliban rule, Afghan women are again able to make use of sports clubs and private gyms and the national boxing team have set their sights on competing at the London 2012 Olympics.
Afghan National Army soldiers march near tanks and armored personnel carriers, which were destroyed during the Soviet occupation and civil war, during a training exercise in Kabul on April 24. NATO hopes to grow the ANA from about 97,000 troops to 171,600 by the end of next year, and the Afghan National Police from about 94,000 officers to 134,000 during the same period.
Women learn how to make a doll at a workshop sponsored by a Malaysian NGO called Mercy, on April 15. 80 women participate in every workshop despite rising tensions between increasing numbers of Taliban in the city and the extensive NATO presence.
Afghan protesters shout anti-American slogans during a protest rally in Kandahar on April 12. Following the killing of five civilians by U.S. troops, scores of Afghans blocked the main highway out of Kandahar with burning tires, chanting "Death to America," and calling for the downfall of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai meet at the presidential palace in Kabul on March 28. Obama paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan, his first since taking office.
An Afghan street photographer, right, takes a portrait of a customer with a wooden-made camera in Kabul on March 24.
Afghan stand guard during the celebration of the Persian New Year (Nawruz) in Kabul on March 21. Afghanistan uses the Persian calendar, which runs from the vernal equinox. The calendar takes as its start date the time when the Prophet Mohammad moved from Mecca to Medina in 621 AD. The current Persian year is 1389.
Afghan tribal leaders and mullahs from both Pashtun and Balouchi tribes pray together at a mosque on March 12 in Khan Neshin, Helmand Province. The leaders were brought to a nearby U.S. Marine base for a meeting with American troops.
Afghan men and boys bathe in the hot room of what is known as a hammam on March 5 in Herat. It is traditional for Afghans to visit the hammam on a Friday, the Muslim day of rest.
Afghan officials investigate as firefighters work at the site of a blast in Kabul on Feb. 26. Witnesses reported at least two smaller blasts around the Safi Landmark complex as police cordoned off the area, ambulances rushed to the scene and sporadic gunfire was heard.
An Afghan rug seller waits for customers at a market in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Feb. 23.
An Afghan man collects oranges during a night at a market in Kabul, on Feb. 20.
Vehicles are seen covered with snow after an avalanche hit the Salang Pass north of Afghanistan's capital Kabul, on Feb. 10. Avalanches killed more than 160 people near the Salang tunnel, a vital humanitarian link between the north and south of the country.
Newly graduated police officers take an oath of allegiance during a ceremony at a police academy in Kabul, on Feb. 3.
Afghan children play soccer inside an old Russian swimming pool on a hill overlooking Kabul, on Jan. 29. The then Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and did not leave until 1989 after a failed bid to prop up a communist regime in the country.
Afghans watch small birds fight in Kabul, on Jan. 22, a traditional pasttime for many here.
A U.S. soldier with a 9/11 tattoo stands with other soldiers inside a shelter during a rocket and mortar attack on Combat Outpost Zerak on Jan. 22. Nine mortars landed inside the base in Paktika Province, but no one was injured. The province, which is roughly the size of Vermont, shares a restive and porous border with Pakistan.
An Afghan policeman stands in front of a Kabul shopping mall where Taliban gunmen battled security forces for hours on Jan. 18. It was the biggest attack in the capital since Oct. 28, 2009, when gunmen with automatic weapons and suicide vests stormed a guest house used by U.N. staff, killing 11.
Chaos in Afghanistan as UN staff killed in Kabul attack
Afghan policemen take positions as smoke rises from the Kabul shopping mall on Jan. 18.
Taliban militants attack Afghanistan capital Kabul
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, center, addresses his new cabinet in Kabul on Jan. 18. Cabinet members were sworn in by Karzai despite the rejection by parliament of the majority of his choices.
An American soldier with the Army's 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Division sleeps on the side of a mountain during an air assault operation on the town of Oshaky on Jan. 18. Oshaky, close to the Pakistani border, is known to harbor anti-coalition fighters and to be the home village of an area Taliban leader.
Sgt. John Hunt from Blackshear, Georgia, left, and Spc. Brian Kolessar from Middletown, New York, right, both from the 293rd Military Police Company out of Fort Stewart, Georgia, play jump rope with local children during a patrol in Kandahar City, Jan. 15.
An Afghan man prays at dusk on a hill near Kabul on Jan. 11.
Afghan widows clad in burqas line up during a cash-for-work project by humanitarian organisation CARE International in Kabul, on Jan. 6. In the project, 500 Afghan widows, most of whom lost their husbands during the civil wars in Afghanistan, make blankets after receiving the materials from CARE.
An Afghan shopkeeper is seen through the hole in his shop's wall after an explosion in Khost, east of Kabul, on Jan. 6. At least 13 people were injured in the explosion. Police were investigating the cause of the blast.
An Afghan girl watches as French soldiers along with members of the Afghan National Police search house-to-house in Jalokhel in Kapisa province just after an encounter with insurgents on Jan. 5. France troops were searching for two kidnapped French journalists and three Afghan assistants. The group went missing six days ago just six miles from a French military base in eastern Afghanistan and despite French commanders mobilising hundreds of troops in a manhunt, they have still not been found.
아프카니스탄의 혼란된 사회를 돕기 위하여 목숨을 걸고 싸우고 있는 미군을 비롯한 연합군 장병들의 노고와 희생이 헛되지 않기를 바라고 전쟁과 테러 그리고 극심한 경제난으로 말할 수 없는 어려움에 처한 국민들이 하루 속히 좋아지기를 바라고 민주주의가 확립되고 여성의 지위가 향상되고 텔레반과 반군의 테러와 살상이 종식되기를 간절히 바란다.
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