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Afghanistan airstrikes fall for sixth month

For the sixth month in row, the number of bombs released over Afghanistan declined, figures from U.S. Air Forces Central showed.

During December, Air Force, Navy and coalition jets released 84 bombs, AFCent said. That’s down from 120 releases in November and the year high of 646 bombs in June.

Over Iraq during December, one bomb was dropped, the lowest tally since March 2005, when no bombs were released, according to AFCent.

Airstrikes in Afghanistan regularly decline in December as weather worsens and targets disappear: Insurgents often hide as snowfall makes it difficult to cross mountains. However, last month’s total was low even compared to previous Decembers. War planes dropped 321 bombs in December 2007 and 209 bombs in December 2006.

For all of 2008, fighters and bombers flew 19,603 close-air support sorties, about 1,200 sorties more than in 2007. But the planes dropped fewer bombs: 3,369, down from 3,572 the year before.

The tally of bomb releases does not include missiles fired, strafing runs and rounds shot by special operations gunships.