KABUL – The death toll among Afghanistan’s security forces is nearing30,000 since the start of 2015, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has said, afigure far higher than anything previously acknowledged.
Ghani appeared via video link this week at the Johns Hopkins School ofAdvanced International Studies in Washington, part of a university he oncetaught at as a professor of anthropology.
Since the start of 2015, when local police and army units succeeded NATO asbearing responsibility for Afghanistan’s security, “28,529 of our securityforces have lost their lives and become martyrs for our freedom,” Ghanisaid.
In the same timeframe, 58 Americans have been killed, he said.