U.S. & Allied Killed and Wounded

Over 7,000 U.S. service members have died in the post-9/11 warzones of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere. Their deaths have affected a large community of parents, spouses, children, siblings, and friends and will continue to have reverberating impacts. Afghan, Iraqi, and other allied military and police deaths have been even more extensive. Western allies of the U.S. also have borne significant human costs in the post-9/11 wars.

Hundreds of thousands more United States and allied service members have been wounded in combat or have died indirectly as a result of injuries sustained in the war zones. The U.S. military suicide rate, historically low, has climbed significantly since 2004: four times as many service members have died by suicide than in combat in the post-9/11 wars, signaling a widespread mental health crisis. 

Because the U.S. military recruits heavily from low income and minority communities, and the states that send the most troops to war are often the poorest states in the nation, certain U.S. states and towns have borne higher human costs than others.

Thousands of private contractors have also died in the wars while providing logistical and security support to U.S. troops. The U.S. government does not thoroughly report contractor deaths, their families are often not compensated for their deaths and injuries, and contractor health care is generally substandard. Foreign workers for U.S. contracting firms often do not have their deaths recorded or compensated.  

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Key Findings

• Over 7,000 U.S. troops have died, as have approximately 8,000 contractors.

• Over 73,000 allied troops and national police in Afghanistan/Pakistan have been killed, and over 100,000 more allied troops have died in Iraq and Syria.
  

• Four times as many U.S. service members have died by suicide than in combat in the post-9/11 wars.

• Certain U.S. states and communities have borne a higher human cost than others, signaling a wider pattern of inequality in military service.

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Recommendations 

• The Pentagon and U.S. State Department should record and make public all deaths and injuries in the war zones, including those of U.S. troops, contractors (U.S. and foreign citizens), civilians, and opposition fighters.

• The Pentagon and the VA should expand their tracking of war-related post-deployment deaths (including suicides), injuries, and illnesses of service members regardless of whether they receive VA treatment.
  

• These data should be consolidated, methodologically transparent, and easily accessible.  

(Page updated as of May 2024)