Key Facts And Figure About Afghanistan

 * Hamid Karzai has led the country since 2001, when

U.S.-backed Afghan forces ended the five-year rule of the

austere Islamist Taliban movement.

* Karzai was first appointed leader of Afghanistan's

interim government at the Bonn conference of December 2001 and

has been re-elected twice since.

* Afghanistan's population is almost 30 million. Life

expectancy for both men and women is about 45 years.

* Some 60 percent of Afghans are Pashtun and 16 percent are

Tajik. Hazaras and Uzbeks each account for 9 percent of

Afghans.

* There are two national languages, Pashto and Dari. Pashto

is the language of the Pashtuns and is spoken exclusively in

many parts of the south and east. Dari (an Afghan dialect of

Farsi) is spoken mainly in the north and centre of Afghanistan.

* Only 28 percent of Afghans are literate.

SECURITY AND VIOLENCE

* Violence has escalated as tens of thousands of additional

foreign, mainly U.S. troops, have been deployed in response to

an escalating Taliban insurgency which has claimed record

numbers of military and civilian lives so far in 2009.

* About 1,502 foreign troops have been killed in

Afghanistan since the war started in November 2001.

* The United States has lost 911 troops, Britain 224 and

other NATO contributors 367, according to the iCasualties

website (www.icasualties.org).

* Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are by far the

biggest killer of foreign troops. So far in 2009, 394 troops

have been killed by home-made, insurgent-laid bombs.

* August 2009 was the deadliest month of the war for

foreign troops, driven by two major operations to secure parts

of restive Helmand province and then the first round of the

presidential election on Aug. 20, when hundreds of Taliban

attacks took place across the country. October 2009 was the

worst month for U.S. troops, with at least 53 killed.

* About 800 civilians were killed between January and May

this year, a 24 percent increase from the same period in 2009,

according to U.N. figures released in June.

* More than half of those deathes were caused by insurgents

and just over a third by international and Afghan forces, the

United Nations said.

INTERNATIONAL FORCES

* There are approximately 105,000 foreign troops from 42

countries working under the NATO-led International Security

Assistance Force (ISAF), which was established in December

2001.

* The United States has by far the most troops in

Afghanistan with 67,000 in total. About half work under the

ISAF mandate, the remainder under the Pentagon's Operation

Enduring Freedom, which also has a mandate to support ISAF.

* Britain, with 9,000 troops is the second largest ISAF

contributor, followed by Germany with 4,245 and France with

3,070, according to the most recent NATO figures from October.

* U.S. President Barack Obama is considering sending up to

40,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, on the advice of the

commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Army General

Stanley McChrystal.

ECONOMY

* According to the United Nations Human Development

rankings for 2009, Afghanistan is ranked 181st out of 182

countries.

* Expanding poppy cultivation and a growing opium trade generate roughly $3 billion in illicit economic activity and looms as one of Kabul's most serious policy concerns. Other long-term challenges include: budget sustainability, job creation, corruption, government capacity, and rebuilding war torn infrastructure.

* Devasted by 30 years of conflict, Afghanistan's economy

is dependent on foreign aid. Some 90 percent of the Afghan

government budget comes from international donors.

* In 2007, about $288 million of foreign direct investment

flowed into Afghanistan, according to the World Bank.

* Some analysts say Afghanistan's economic growth has also

been stunted by high levels of corruption which prevents donor

aid from reaching ordinary Afghans.

* Afghanistan is ranked 176th out of 180 countries on

Transparency International's corruption perceptions index.

DRUGS

* Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world's opium, a

thick paste from poppy used to make heroin, according to the

latest U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime report.

* Helmand province in southern Afghanistan produces 90

percent of Afghanistan's opium poppy crop.

* About two thirds of the opium is turned into heroin

before it leaves Afghanistan and goes on to feed some 15

million addicts, mainly in Russia, Iran and Europe.

* Opium cultivation in Afghanistan is directly linked to

the Taliban insurgency. Since 2005, the Taliban have made up to

$160 million a year from taxing cultivation and trade of the

crop in Afghanistan.

Sources: NATO, U.S. Forces, U.N.,Wak Fundation, World Bank, iCasualties.org;

CIA World Factbook, Transparency International