The ferocity of the Taliban’s assault on coalition forces in Afghanistan has been highlighted by a penetrating statistical analysis of fatality rates among coalition troops. Since May, an average of five coalition soldiers have been killed every week by the Taliban – twice the death rate suffered by coalition forces during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The analysis shows that troops are fighting one of the fiercest campaigns since the Bush administration’s “war on terror” began in 2001.
Sheila Bird, vice-president of the UK’s Royal Statistical Society, suspected that the casualty figures issued by the US, UK and Canadian governments…
