The war on terror launched in Afghanistan 14 years ago that since spilled over into neighboring Pakistan has killed nearly 150,000 people, including civilians, insurgents and Americans.
A report from Brown University's Watson Institute says the war produced 149,000 fatalities in Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2001 to April 2014. Included in the figures (pdf) are U.S. military personnel, non-U.S. Allied troops, contractors, Taliban, al Qaeda and other opposition fighters—as well as more than 47,000 civilians from both countries. There have been 26,270 Afghan civilians killed and 21,500 Pakistanis.
The report pointed out that not all civilian deaths are an immediate result of combat. "In March 2002, Human Rights Watch documented the results when one U.S. cluster bomb that had failed to explode on impact was detonated by five boys on their way to a picnic in Takh-te-Sefar, Afghanistan, 'Ramin, 15, died immediately. . . . Soraj, 12, lost both legs. Ismaeel, 16, sustained a chest wound. Farhad, 18, injured his foot. Waheed, 5, received a chest wound and minor head injury.' The survivors would need immediate medical care, long-term care, and prostheses," the report said.
All told, the number of people killed in each country is 92,000 in Afghanistan and 57,000 in Pakistan.
Nor is the killing over. Earlier this month, gunmen killed nine Afghans who were working for the Czech humanitarian organization People in Need, according to The Washington Post. The organization subsequently announced it was suspending its work in Afghanistan.