Final totals show cost of 20-year conflict.
CHICAGO, United States (AA) – With the US presence in Afghanistan rapidly winding down, the costs are being added up.
A Costs of War project from the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University shows the US spent $2.26 trillion for the war in Afghanistan from the fall of 2001 through the fiscal year that ends in September.
That is money spent by the Defense Department and the State Department along with estimated interest on war borrowing and care for US veterans.
The report also said 241,000 lives were lost as a direct result of the war.
In all, 2,448 US military and Defense Department civilians were killed in the conflict, as well as 1,144 allied troops. The report estimates that up to 69,000 Afghan security forces personnel died, along with 72 journalists and 444 humanitarian aid workers.
The authors noted that number of deaths do not include deaths caused by disease, loss of access to food, water, infrastructure or other indirect consequences of war.