2,000 Dead: Cost of War in Afghanistan

October 1, 2012 -- intro: Seven days before the 12th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the war reached a deadly and tragic milestone this weekend as the 2,000th American soldier died in combat.

While U.S. and NATO forces are years away from a full withdrawal, tens of thousands of American soldiers have come home this year as the United States began transferring responsibility to Afghan security forces.

Here is a look at the price, in both lives and dollars, that Americans and Afghans have paid over 12 years of war.

ABC's Luis Martinez and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

quicklist:1title: 4,012 Daystext: The United States has been at war in Afghanistan for 4,012 days, six days short of 12 years. Troops arrived on Oct. 7, 2001, less than a month after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

quicklist: 2title: 2,000 Americans Killedtext: In the 12 years that American troops have been fighting in Afghanistan, 2,000 have been killed. The 2,000th death was reported in eastern Afghanistan Saturday and was suspected to be an insider attack by Afghan forces.

There has been an alarming uptick in these insider attacks on U.S. and NATO troops this year, with Afghan soldiers and police, who have been trained and armed by coalition forces, killing 52 U.S. and other NATO troops since January.

The most deadly year of the war to date was 2010, when 492 Americans died.

During the first nine months of 2012, 254 members of the U.S. military lost their lives in Afghanistan. A total of 549 Americans have died in the war-torn country in the year since Osama bin Laden was killed in May 2011.

quicklist: 4 title: 17,644 Americans Woundedtext: More than 17,000 U.S. troops have been wounded in action since the Afghanistan war began in 2001.

As a point of comparison, nearly 30,000 U.S. military members have been wounded in the Iraq conflict since it began in 2002.

About 4,500 Americans were killed in Iraq during the nine-year war that formally ended in December 2011.

quicklist: 3title: 68,000 Troopstext: There are currently 68,000 U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan. That's down from the peak troop level of about 100,000 who were stationed there in March 2011. By the end of 2014, most U.S. troops are expected to be out of the country.

About 40,000 additional troops from America's allies, such as Great Britain, are also stationed in Afghanistan.

quicklist: 5title: 13,009 Civilians Killedtext: According to the United Nations, more than 13,000 Afghan citizens have been killed between 2007 -- when the U.N. began reporting such statistics -- and June 2012.

Nearly 2,000 civilians were wounded in war-related incidents during the first six months of 2012. About 1,145 civilians were killed in that same time period, according to U.N. totals.

quicklist: 6title: $1.2 Trilliontext: The war in Afghanistan has cost the United States nearly $1.2 trillion -- or $1.172 trillion, to be exact -- since its inception in 2001 through July 31, 2012, according to the U.S. Defense Department.

According to a Pew Trusts report, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have contributed more to growth in U.S. debt than any other policy since 2001 except the Bush-era tax cuts and the increased interest from legislative changes.