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Coalition Deaths |
Iraqi Deaths Since April 2005 when new government was announced.
30-100 K Total Iraqis killed. See below. Deaths per Day
The Department of Defense (DOD) numbers are usually lower than those reported at icasualties.org and the AP because of DOD delays in reporting. On Oct 25, 2005 AP reported the US death toll reached 2000, while the DOD reported 1,985.
Stats: Chart by month at CNN - 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
and tables at icasualties.org Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) (i.e. roadside bombs and suicide car bombs) cause about half of all the American combat casualties in Iraq, both killed-in-action and wounded. Insurgents have constructed IEDs powerful enough to kill soldiers inside 22-ton Bradley Fighting Vehicles.
Iraqis Killed In 2005 the United Nations said the actual number of Iraqi deaths is over double the number reported. Iraqi Deaths Since April 2005 when new government was announced. At Iraq Body Count they report from 34-38,000 killed thru March, 2006. This includes 7,350 killed during the "major-combat" phase. In 2004, Dr Les Roberts, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, estimated up to 100,000 Iraqi civilians - half of them women and children - had died in Iraq since the invasion. This report was published in Oct. 2004 in The Lancet, a UK medical journal. Some have questioned the accuracy of their data. The Lancet article was also critical of the failure by coalition forces to count Iraqi casualties. See comments on the study in the Guardian.
In a Jun 10, 2005 Wall Street Journal Article they state:
"Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr released statistics last week showing that some 12,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed by insurgents in the last 18 months."
In a October 2006 article "Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional
cluster sample survey", by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health published in the Lancet, they estimate that 655,000 Iraqis (2.5% of the population) or 540 per day have died
above the number that would be expected in a non-conflict
situation, between March 2003 and July 2006.
In Jan. 2007 the U.N. reported more than 34,000 civilians were "violently killed" across Iraq in 2006, with an average of 94 killed every day.
"According to information made available to UNAMI (U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq), 6,376 civilians were violently killed in November and December 2006, with no less than 4,731 in Baghdad, most of them as a result of gunshot wounds," the report said. See also Iraq Body Count (IBC)
How Americans view the war USA Today/Gallup poles.
Brief Timeline
Major Players
Nov. 2003 - Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, (Syed Ali al-Husaini Seestan, as-Seestani, Ali Husaini) Iraq's most senior Shia cleric, rejected a US plan - agreed to with the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council - that allows for the transfer of sovereignty to a provisional government in June 2004.
April 2, 2004 - Radical Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, announced he was opening Iraqi chapters of Hezbollah and Hamas in what seemed to be a reaction to Israeli forces assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the leader of Hamas.
Sadr, the thirty-something year old son of the esteemed, late Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, assassinated by Saddam Hussein's agents in 1999 along with two other sons, has tapped into the support of the disenfranchised Shi'a of Sadr City (named after his father, formerly known as Saddam City). It is reported that al-Sistani and his supporters detest al-Sadr, his rhetoric, and his methods.
74 soldiers were killed in the first two weeks of April.
The Badr militia, which is much larger (up to 30,000) than Sadr's Mahdi, has started to support Sadr. It is controlled by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and is represented on the council by the brother of their leader Muhammad Baqr al-Hakim, who was assassinated in August of 2003. Sadr has also received offers of help from Sunni insurgency groups. The Ansar Islam Army, regarded as an Al Qaida-inspired group, released an announcement that offered to help Sadr in the Shi'ite revolt against the United States. Jordanian-born extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has Al-Qaeda connections according to U.S. officials, heads the Tawhid and Jihad group (Arabic for "monotheism and Holy War"). In August 2004 they stepped up their hostage taking aimed at driving out foreign companies involved in reconstruction projects. As of Sept. 22 the grouped claimed responsibility for killing at least seven hostages. al-Zarqawi's group is also behind a number of bombings and gun attacks. Other insurgent groups include: Supporters of the Sunni People, The Men's Faith Brigate, The Islamic Anger, Al Baraa bin Malik Suicide Brigate, The Tawid Lions of Abdullah Ibn al Zobeir. Highly visible groups such as al_Qaida, Ansar al-Sunnah Army and the Victorious Army Group appear to act as fronts, providing money, general direction and expertise to the smaller groups, but often taking responsibility for their attacks. Government officials put them in three categories: Sunni Arabs disaffected by the Shiite majority in the new government, former Saddam Hussein government loyalists and foreign terrorists.
See:
Also: Nov. 2003 Boston Globe |