Afghanistan casualty rate approaches WWII proportions

UK casualty rates in Afghanistan are approaching World War Two levels, as the world's focus turns from Iraq to the fight against the Taliban.

The most recent figures from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for the period of 1 January 2006, to 30 September 2008, state that 34 UK soldiers have died and 161 have been wounded in action in Afghanistan.

The latest British soldier causality in Afghanistan was killed on 15 October in an explosion whilst on patrol.

By comparison, in Iraq two British soldiers have died and 20 have been wounded in action during the same time period.

As a proportion of soldiers in combat, the Afghanistan casualty rates since the war began in 2001 are the worst that Britain has suffered since the Second World War advance through France, Belgium and Holland into Germany in 1944-45.

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, a former commanding officer of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters said: “For people serving in certain regiments at the moment, this is the sort of casualty rate which hasn’t been seen since World War Two.”

However, MoD officials suggest there is no basis for equating the casualty figures in Afghanistan with those of WWII. Defence ministry officials argued that the figures include those struck by various ailments and therefore do not provide an accurate overview of the current situation.

An MoD spokeswoman said: "There is no comparison between current operations in Afghanistan and the Second World War.

"What we are seeing now is the result of combined advances in body armour and battlefield medicine which enable more wounded to survive than in any previous conflict."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited Afghanistan in August of this year, after 10 French soldiers were killed in a fire-fight near Kabul. Mr Brown stated that the actions of Taliban militants would only succeed in making Britain “even more resolved to defeat the forces of terrorism.”

The Afghan defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak acknowledged the escalating violence in Afghanistan earlier this month, saying: "The level of violence has increased every year and 2008 has been the worst of all.”