US military suffers 1,000th Afghan death

The US military has suffered its 1,000th death of the Afghan war.

The grim milestone was reached when Nato reported that a service member was killed today in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan, according to a count by The Associated Press.

The statement did not identify the victim’s nationality, but US spokesman Col Wayne Shanks said the service member was American.

The news agency bases its tally on Pentagon reports of deaths suffered as a direct result of the Afghan conflict, including personnel assigned to units in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Uzbekistan.

Other news organisations count deaths elsewhere as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, which includes operations in the Philippines, the Horn of Africa and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.