[Wezfyowk]

Nov 18, 2009

Record US army suicides

WASHINGTON - SUICIDES in the US Army will hit a new high this year, a top general said on Tuesday in a disclosure likely to increase concerns about stress on US forces ahead of an expected build-up in Afghanistan. The findings, released as President Barack Obama inches toward a decision to send up to 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, show the number of active-duty suicides so far in 2009 has already matched last year's record of 140 deaths. Another 71 soldiers committed suicide after being taken off active duty in 2009 - nearly 25 per cent more than the end-year total for 2008. Some had returned home only weeks before taking their own lives. The figures applied only to the US Army. Data from other branches of the armed services was not immediately available. General Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff cautioned against generalising about the causes of the suicides, or assuming links to combat stress on forces stretched thin by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as a third of all suicides had never been deployed abroad. The military's suicide rate among active-duty soldiers was about 20 per 100,000, nearly double the national US rate of 11.1 suicides per 100,000 people, as reported by the US. -- REUTERS