Last week saw a number of grim milestones in the Iraq and Afghan wars. The 150th British soldier died in Iraq, closely followed by the 60th British soldier in Afghanistan. Around the same time the US death toll in Iraq reached 3,500. The last available survey-based estimate of Iraqi dead in the war is 650,000, as of June 2006, while in Afghanistan the total figure remains a matter of almost complete guess work. In both countries the situation continues to deteriorate.
In response, the British Casualty Monitor project has been started over at LFCM. They aim to provide regular graphical analysis of casualty trends, initially just for UK troops, that will help in understanding the true burden of the wars and the evolving trends in the conflicts.