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Military - in brief (14)

01 May 2005

At least 25,000 civilian deaths from US-UK invasion of Iraq: The first detailed account of civilian deaths resulting from the US-led invasion of Iraq has been published in a report by Iraq Body Count, Dossier on Civilian casualties in Iraq 2003-2005. Based on eye-witness accounts from mortuary officials and medics as well as analysis of over 10,000 media reports it says that 24,865 civilians were killed in the first two years since the illegal invasion. Twenty percent of the total is accounted for by women and children. The report finds that the majority of non-combatant deaths can be attributed to US-led military forces (37%) while post-invasion criminal violence accounted for 36% of the fatalities. Insurgents opposing the invasion forces killed 9% of the civilian victims. Over half of the civilian deaths were caused by explosions, with air strikes accounting for 64% of them. Children were the most likely victims of air strikes and unexploded ordinance. The figures, which are incomplete and therefore underestimated, fill an important gap left by the US/UK forces who "do not do body counts" - at least of Iraqis. The British and US governments have been described as "wholly irresponsible" in a press release by Count the Casualties Campaign (published on the British Medical Journal website) for their attitude towards Iraqi civilian deaths which they dismiss as mere "collateral damage". One of the report's authors, Professor John Sloboda, said: "On average, 34 ordinary Iraqis have met violent deaths every day since the invasion of March 2003. Our data show that no sector of Iraqi society has escaped."

http://reports.iraqbodycount.org/a_dossier_of_civilian-casualties_2003-2005.pdf; "Failure to Count the Casualties”