Army suicides highest in nearly 2 decades, study finds

More U.S. soldiers committed suicide in 2007 than at any time since thefirst Gulf War, according to an Army study to be released laterThursday.

There were 108 suicides last year, up from 102 the year before. The 2006 figure also was itself the highest since 1990.

More than two in five of the suicides came after soldiers returned home from deployments.

The military is set to announce the findings officially later Thursday. CNN obtained some statistics from the study before publication.

Roughly one in four of the soldiers who killed themselves were on their first deployments, according to the study. About the same percentage killed themselves without ever having been deployed. Forty-three percent committed suicide after coming home.