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National Security Brief: U.S. Deaths In Afghanistan Reach 2,000

— U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan reached 2,000 as the toll has climbed steadily recently due to so-called “green on blue” attacks.

— USA Today reports that “Data collected from roadside explosions in Afghanistan and Iraq show troops in Mine Resistant Ambush Protected trucks are as much 14 times more likely to survive the blast than those riding in Humvees.”

— Yemen’s new president said that he personally approves U.S. drone attacks in his country and that the campaign has helped reverse al-Qaeda’s gains there. “Every operation, before taking place, they take permission from the president,” President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi said in an interview with the Washington Post, adding, “The drone technologically is more advanced than the human brain.”

— The Wall Street Journal reports: The U.S. is preparing for a stepped-up counterterrorism campaign against al Qaeda’s affiliate in North Africa in response to the Sept. 11 attack on the American consulate in Libya.

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— After several days of attacking President Obama over the attacks that killed for Americans in Libya last month, Romney’s foreign policy advisers are at odds on whether they should continue criticizing Obama on foreign policy or shift back to the economy.

— Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Sunday that Iran’s economy is edging towards collapse due to international sanctions over its controversial nuclear program.

(Photo: Brennan Linsley/AP)