Iraq's grim tally

Stat house
August 2005

Iraq's grim tally
“A Dossier on Civilian Casualties in Iraq, 2003-2005” is the first detailed account of all non-combatants reported killed or wounded during the first two years of the continuing conflict. The report, published by Iraq Body Count in association with Oxford Research Group, is based on comprehensive analysis of over 10,000 media reports published between March 2003 and March 2005.

Findings include:

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.

• 82 percent of those killed were adult males and 9 percent were adult women.

• Nearly one in ten of those killed was under the age of 18.

• Nearly one in two hundred of those killed was a baby aged 0-2.

• Most adult victims were parents leaving behind orphans and widows.

When did they die?

• 30 percent 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 percent of civilian victims.

• Anti-occupation forces/insurgents killed 9 percent of civilian victims.

• Post-invasion criminal violence accounted for 36 percent 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 of (53 percent) all civilian deaths involved explosive devices.

• Air strikes caused most (64 percent) 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 percent 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.

Speaking at the launch of the report in London, Professor John Sloboda, FBA, one of the report's authors said: "The ever-mounting Iraqi death toll is the forgotten cost of the decision to go to war in Iraq. 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. We sincerely hope that this research will help to inform decision-makers around the world about the real needs of the Iraqi people as they struggle to rebuild their country. It remains a matter of the gravest concern that, nearly two and half years on, neither the U.S. nor the U.K. governments have begun to systematically measure the impact of their actions in terms of human lives destroyed."

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