Casualties of War

"A Dossier on Civilian Casualties in Iraq, 2003-2005" published by Iraq Body Count in association with Oxford Research Group

Who was killed?
-24,865 civilians were reported killed in the first two years.
-Women and children accounted for almost 20% of all civilian deaths.
-Baghdad alone recorded almost half of all deaths.

When did they die?
-30% of civilian deaths occurred during the invasion phase before 1 May 2003.
-Post-invasion, the number of civilians killed was almost twice as high in year two (11,351) as in year one (6,215).

Who did the killing?
-US-led forces killed 37% of civilian victims.
-Anti-occupation forces/insurgents killed 9% of civilian victims.
-Post-invasion criminal violence accounted for 36% of all deaths.
-Killings by anti-occupation forces, crime and unknown agents have shown a steady rise over the entire period.

What was the most lethal weaponry?
-Over half (53%) of all civilian deaths involved explosive devices.
-Air strikes caused most (64%) of the explosives deaths.
-Children were disproportionately affected by all explosive devices but most severely by air strikes and unexploded ordnance (including cluster bomblets).

How many were injured?
-At least 42,500 civilians were reported wounded.
-The invasion phase caused 41% of all reported injuries.
-Explosive weaponry caused a higher ratio of injuries to deaths than small arms.
-The highest wounded-to-death ratio incidents occurred during the invasion phase.

Who provided the information?
-Mortuary officials and medics were the most frequently cited witnesses.
-Three press agencies provided over one third of the reports used.
-Iraqi journalists are increasingly central to the reporting work.

These figures cover violent deaths. Johns Hopkins University also published a report that studied the mortality rate in Iraq during the first year of the war. It showed 100,000 more Iraqis died than would have been expected had the invasion not occurred. Can you believe that children died from diarhea due to a lack of clean drinking water? In certain cases, the lack of clean drinking water was due to coalition bombing of water treatment plants. Appalling.

Oh yeah, the number of U.S. soldiers killed has reached 1,700. While we enjoy the comforts of our lives and bitch about things like traffic and the 100 degree temperatures in Denver, let's not forget about the men and women serving in Iraq.