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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Half of deaths in Russian Army suicides

20/ 08/ 2007

MOSCOW, August 20 (RIA Novosti) - Suicides continue to be the main cause of death in Russia's Armed Forces, the Defense Ministry said Monday.

According to the ministry's official Web site, a total of 262 servicemen have died from crimes, accidents and suicides so far this year.

The deaths were mainly due to suicides (147), accidents (60), traffic accidents (27), murder through negligence (15), hazing (7) and mishandling of arms (6).

The ministry earlier said a total of 554 servicemen had died in 21,252 accidents and other non-combat-related incidents in the Russian Armed Forces in 2006.

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Historical Fact

"Of the more than 274,000 officers and men who served in the army during the Spanish-American War and the period of demobilization, 5,462 died in the various theaters of operation and in camps in the a U.S. Only 379 of the deaths were battle casualties, the remainder being attributed to disease and other causes."

Source: Encyclopedia of American History by Richard Morris

In 1898, thousands of soldiers got food poisoning from meat packed by Armour and Company and sold to the Army. There are no figures on how many of the five thousand noncombat deaths were caused by this.

The Oxford Companion to American Military History estimates that between 2 percent and 25 percent of the casualties in America's wars are attributable to friendly fire.