Click to play videoNew Delhi: The US Army is reporting the highest rate of suicides since 1991, says a newly released report.
It says more than one-fourth of the suicides were reported from soldiers on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to a US military report, more than one-fourth of all US soldiers that have committed suicide in the past year have done so in Iraq or Afghanistan.
There were 99 confirmed suicides among active-duty soldiers during 2006, up from 88 the previous year and the highest since the 102 suicides in 1991.
Iraq was the most common deployment location for both confirmed suicides and attempts.
Statistically, about twice as many women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan committed suicide, as did women not sent to war, the report said.
The report also said that failed personal relationships, legal and financial problems and the stress of their jobs were factors pushing soldiers to commit suicide.
The increases for 2006 came as army officials worked to set up a number of new and stronger programs for providing mental health care to a force strained by the longer-than-expected war in Iraq and President George W Bush's so-called "war on terror", entering its sixth year.
(With agency inputs)
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