US Army suicide rate hits 26-year high in 2006

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Ninety-nine US soldiers killed themselves last year, the highest rate of suicide in the Army in 26 years, a new report says. More than one out of four soldiers who committed suicide did so while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to a report scheduled to be released Thursday. Iraq was the most common deployment location for US soldiers who either attempted suicide or committed suicide. The report, which The Associated Press obtained ahead of its public release, said the 99 confirmed suicides among active duty soldiers compared to 88 in 2005 and was the highest raw number since the 102 suicides reported in 1991, the year of the Gulf War, when there were more soldiers on active duty. In a half million-person Army, last year's suicide toll translates to a rate of 17.3 per 100,000, the highest in the past 26 years, officials report. The rate has fluctuated over those years, with the low being 9.1 per 100,000 in 2001.