2,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan

At this symbolic level reached Wednesday, will add 16,402 wounded since the conflict began in late 2001. The number of U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan has reached 2000, after nearly eleven years of war and the death Wednesday of a Marine Corporal in 21 years of fighting with the Taliban, according to Pentagon data consulted Thursday. The independent website icasualties.org, which compiles data on the soldiers killed during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), which began in October 2001, mentions his side 2,008 American dead. Of the 2000 deaths identified by the Pentagon, 1,577 were killed in action and 34 are women. Some 16,402 soldiers were also wounded during the conflict. More than 150 U.S. soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the year. The U.S. military has experienced its biggest losses in 2010 with 499 deaths, against 414 in 2011. More than 90,000 U.S. troops are currently deployed in Afghanistan.This figure should be reduced to 68,000 by the end of the summer thanks to the withdrawal of reinforcements decided by President Barack Obama in 2009. Approximately 40,000 men of the international coalition led by NATO are also fighting in Afghanistan. At least 1,039 NATO soldiers have been killed since the conflict began in Afghanistan, including 418 British and 87 French. NATO will transfer responsibility for security to the 352,000 men of Afghan forces by mid-2013 and increase to a supporting role until the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan in late 2014. Losses of U.S. in Afghanistan are far from equaling those known in Iraq: some 4,475 U.S. troops were killed and 32,228 injured between 2003 and 2010, according to Pentagon data.