KABUL -- The deadliest three months for American forces in Afghanistan have pushed the U.S. death toll to at least 500, forcing a war long overshadowed by Iraq back into the headlines.
Larger, more sophisticated militant attacks have also caused a sharp rise in Afghan civilian deaths -- at least 472 in the first seven months of the year, most in suicide bombings, according to an Associated Press count.
In all, at least 600 Afghan civilians were killed from January through July, a 30 per cent increase from the same period last year, according to AP figures compiled from coalition and Afghan officials. That includes at least 128 killed by U.S. or NATO forces.
There are about 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the highest since the war began.
The U.S. military suffered 65 deaths in May, June and July, by far the deadliest three-month period in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.
- The Associated Press
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