Afghanistan death toll in 2004 up to 957

[JoFerret]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&ncid=716&e=6&u=/ap/20041003/ap_on_re_as/afghan_dying_for_democracy

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The killing in Afghanistan (news - web sites) spirals onward, undermining U.S. claims of success in pacifying the country with less than a week to go before an historic experiment with democracy — direct presidential elections.

The deaths of three Afghan soldiers and two militants over the weekend — barely noted in news reports — brought to at least 957 the number of people reported killed in political violence this year, according to an Associated Press review. The toll includes about 30 American soldiers.

With Afghanistan three years removed from the brutality of Taliban rule, President Bush has acclaimed the Oct. 9 presidential vote a beacon of hope for the Islamic world, and a prelude to even more tricky balloting slated for January in violence-plagued Iraq

But the tally of dead in Afghanistan — a haven of tranquility compared with Iraq — is an indicator of the task facing both the U.S. military and whomever becomes Afghanistan's first directly elected president — most likely the American-backed incumbent, Hamid Karzai — to consolidate a shaky peace.
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