WASHINGTON, Dec 23: The Pentagon said on Monday that so far 53 US soldiers have been killed in the “war against terrorism”, most of them in Afghanistan.
About 8,000 American troops are deployed across the mountainous nation, mostly along the eastern border with Pakistan.
The Bush Administration says that the US soldiers are in Afghanistan for the long haul, and their strength will not be reduced even if the United States goes to war with Iraq.
Although US troops have defeated the former Taliban regime and helped install a new government in Kabul, Taliban and Al Qaeda supporters are believed to have fled to inaccessible rural areas. From their hideouts, they often conduct hit-and-run attacks on US soldiers and their Afghan and international allies.
On Friday, a US commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Daniel K. McNeil, warned that attacks on American and allied troops may increase.
While releasing the list of the people so far killed in Afghanistan and elsewhere during the ongoing campaign against terrorism, US defence officials said reports about US casualties published in the press in Pakistan and the Middle East were grossly exaggerated.
“We wonder who circulates these reports and why,” ask Lewis Matson, a spokesman for the US Central Command.
“It is not possible for any government to hide such large number of deaths.
“Somebody in the family or from among the friends will speak up, talk to the media, even if the government does not,” said Matson while talking to Dawn.
Centcom is directly responsible for the US military campaign in Afghanistan.
Some newspapers in the Middle East and Pakistan reported on Sunday that at least 17 American soldiers were killed in a clash with the Taliban survivors in eastern Afghanistan over the weekend. US authorities acknowledged only one death, that of army sergeant Steven Checo.
