US reaches 1,000 death marker in Afghan war

The US military death toll in Afghanistan passes the 1,000 mark. More casualties are expected this summer.

KABUL // The American military death toll in Afghanistan has passed the 1,000 mark at a time when US president Barack Obama's strategy to turn back the Taliban is facing its greatest test - an ambitious campaign to win over a disgruntled population in the insurgents' southern heartland. More casualties are expected when the campaign kicks into high gear this summer. The results may determine the outcome of a nearly nine-year conflict that became "Obama's war" after he decided to shift the fight against Islamist militancy from Iraq to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where Afghan insurgents find sanctuary.

The grim milestone was reached when Nato reported that a service member was killed today in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan. The statement did not identify the victim's nationality, but US spokesman Col Wayne Shanks says the service member was American. Already the new focus on the once-forgotten Afghan war has come at a heavy price. More than 430 of the US dead were killed after Mr Obama took office in January 2009.

* AP The Associated Press bases its tally on Defense Department reports of deaths suffered as a direct result of the Afghan conflict, including personnel assigned to units in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Uzbekistan. Other news organisations count deaths suffered by service members assigned elsewhere as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, which includes operations in the Philippines, the Horn of Africa and at the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.