Afghanistan: 36 Brits killed in 5 years, 31 in 6 months

BBC News

14 Britons killed in Afghanistan

Fourteen British service personnel have died after their aircraft crashed in Afghanistan, the MoD has said.

Twelve RAF personnel, a Royal Marine and an Army soldier were on board the RAF Nimrod MR2 which came down in the southern province of Kandahar.

The reconnaissance jet belonged to the Nato-led force battling the Taleban.

Officials said the crash appeared an accident. Tony Blair said it would "distress the whole country" but the mission in Afghanistan was "vital".

[...] The crash brings the death toll of UK forces personnel in Afghanistan to 36 since the start of operations in November 2001. Link

db: The BBC tells us that with the latest losses 36 Brits have been killed in mission impossible since 2001. From that a quick mental calculation says around 7 Brits have died on average per year. What this story doesn't make clear is that 31 of the 36 who have perished in this Blairwar have done so since March 2006, hence the rate of attrition illustrated by the BBC is about one tenth of the current reality.