WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- The Pentagon report on suicides by troops in Operation Iraqi Freedom don't include two who killed themselves in a stateside military hospital, UPI reports.
The Pentagon released its latest report last week but it did not include a soldier who served in Iraq who apparently hung himself with a bedsheet last week at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Nor did it count another soldier who apparently committed suicide at the same military hospital last July. The Pentagon said it is not counting suicides among troops who killed themselves after they left Iraq.
A veterans' advocate questioned that decision. "I want to know why stateside suicides are not counted in the total number of suicides reported by the Department of Defense," said Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center and a former Army Ranger.
Pentagon spokeswoman Martha Rudd said the military is counting only suicides that occurred in theater. "All of these deaths occurred in Iraq or Kuwait," Rudd said.
