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Afghanistan bombings top charts in May

Air Force, Navy and other coalition warplanes dropped a record number of bombs in Afghanistan for May, Air Forces Central figures show.

During May, warplanes released 478 bombs, the highest May count since numbers started being tracked in 2004.

The increase came despite Afghan complaints that on May 4, an Air Force B-1B and three Navy F/A-18s killed dozens of civilians in western Afghanistan when Afghan troops and their Marine advisers were attacked by insurgents hiding in a village. The bombing is under investigation by Central Command.

May also marked the fifth consecutive month of an increasing use of bombs, after a decline that started last July.

The munitions release came during 2,196 close air support sorties.

The actual number of air strikes was higher because the AFCent numbers don’t include attacks by helicopters and special operations gunships. The numbers also don’t include strafing runs or launches of small missiles.

Over Iraq, two bombs were released during 725 strike sorties.

Transport crews airdropped 1.5 million pounds of supplies, mostly in Afghanistan, and tankers flew 4,441 sorties supporting Iraq and Afghanistan operations

Reconnaissance aircraft flew 1,566 missions over Iraq and Afghanistan, a 10 percent increase over April’s flights.