British dead and wounded in Afghanistan, month by month

Sunday, May 29, 2011

British dead and wounded in Afghanistan, month by month

What is the human cost of the war in Afghanistan for British forces? As British troop deaths exceed 300, these are the latest figures - including new wounded and amputation statistics
? Get the data
? Amputation statistics
? Afghanistan civilian casualties
? Interactive guide

Only recently, it was 300 British forces personnel who had died in Afghanistan. Today, with the latest casualties, that figure is up to 368. British forces have been redeployed to other parts of Helmand Province from Sangin, where over 200 British soldiers have died.

2009 was previously the bloodiest year so far for British troops in Afghanistan. 2010 nearly caught up. But this year, with the deployment of US troops to Helmand, things had seemed to quieten down.

As the number of British deaths in Afghanistan nears 400 - now much higher than Iraq and even the Falklands conflict - these are the numbers of British fatalities for Afghanistan - and Iraq, too - updated as they change.

We've broken Afghanistan down month by month.

Research has found that the rate at which British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan is almost four times that of their US counterparts, and double the rate which is officially classified as "major combat".

Analysis by the Medical Research Council's biostatistics unit at the University of Cambridge also found that the death rate of UK troops is twice that of 2006, when they were described as being involved in the fiercest fighting since their involvement in Korea 50 years ago.
The researchers said the "UK could expect at least as many military fatalities in 10 weeks in Afghanistan as in 20 weeks in 2006".
The official classification of "major combat" is a killing rate of six per 1,000 personnel years. For the 12 months up to May, the killing rate for British troops in Afghanistan stood at 13.

More complicated are the wounded numbers. Rather than one simple set of statistics, the MoD gives us three - all of which are included as a sheet in the dataset below (and summarised down the page).

? Firstly, you have the Noticas numbers. These are the most seriously wounded cases, where the family has been informed the wounded person has been "listed"
? Then there are the people registered at field hospitals - which go from the seriously to the lightly wounded, from all causes, violent and otherwise
? Lastly there are the personnel who've been evacuated by air, which could be serious combat injuries or illnesses such as dysentry

This is how the MoD defines it:

'"Very Seriously ill/ Injured/wounded" or VSI is the definition we use where the illness or injury is of such severity that life or reason is imminently endangered. "Seriously ill/Injured/Wounded" or SI is the definition we use where the patient's condition is of such severity that there is cause for immediate concern, but there is no imminent danger to life or reason. The VSI and SI categories are defined by Joint Casualty and Compassionate Policy and Procedures. They are not strictly medical categories but are designed to give an indication of the severity of the illness to inform what the individual's next of kin are told.'

What do you think? Can you do anything with the data?