Iraq death toll in third year of occupation is highest yet
The civilian death toll has risen inexorably for the
entire duration of the US-led military presence in Iraq following the
initial invasion. That is the grim reality uncovered by ongoing tracking
of media reports by the Iraq Body Count project (IBC).
Figures released by IBC, updated by statistics for the
year 2005 from the main Baghdad morgue, show that the total number of
civilians reported killed has risen year-on-year since May 1, 2003 (the
date that President Bush announced "major combat operations have ended"):
Ø 6,331 from May 1, 2003 to the first anniversary of the
invasion, March 19, 2004 (324 days: Year 1)
Ø 11,312 from March 20, 2004 to March 19, 2005 (365 days:
Year 2)
Ø 12,617 from March 20, 2005 to March 1, 2006 (346 days:
Year 3)
In terms of average violent deaths per day this
represents:
Ø 20 per day in Year 1
Ø 31 per day in Year 2 and
Ø 36 per day in Year 3
The IBC figure for Year 3 includes no deaths from March
2006, excludes the bulk of killings which followed the February 22 bombing
of a major Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra and lacks Baghdad morgue data
for January and February this year. If January and February 2006 are
excluded as being clearly incomplete, then the daily death rate for the
remaining part of Year 3 rises to 40 (11,480 deaths over 287 days = 40 per
day). However even before Year 3 has ended, and with incomplete data for
its final months, the number of civilians reported killed is already
higher than for all of Year 2 (12,617 vs. 11,312).
Although what has been described as ‘sectarian violence’
undoubtedly contributes to a growing proportion of deaths, the last year’s
total includes 370 known civilian deaths from military action by US-led
forces and 2,231 from anti-occupation activity against coalition and Iraqi
government targets. The post-invasion increase in criminal activity
remains an important concern but the majority of media reports do not
allow a clear identification of the perpetrators or their motives. The
"unknown agents" who did most of the killing could fall into any of the
categories above, as well as other types of ‘terrorist’. Reports also
indicate that the past year has seen an increasing number of extrajudicial
executions.
Speaking from London, Iraq Body Count co-founder John
Sloboda said, "Today’s figures are an indictment of three years of
occupation, which continues to make the lives of ordinary Iraqis worse,
not better. Talk of civil war is a convenient way for the US and Iraqi
authorities to mask the real and continuing core of this conflict, which
is between an incompetent and brutal occupying power on the one hand and a
nationalist insurgency fuelled by grief, anger and humiliation on the
other. This conflict is proof that violence begets more violence. The
initial act that sparked this cycle of violence is the illegal US-led
invasion of March and April 2003 which resulted in 7,312 civilian deaths
and 17,298 injured in a mere 42 days. The insurgency will remain strong so
long as the US military remains in Iraq and ordinary Iraqi people will
have more death and destruction to look forward to."
Iraq Body Count co-founder Hamit Dardagan added: "In
September 2003, after our first major review of civil insecurity in Iraq
informed by data from the Baghdad morgue, we noted that:
‘The US may be effective at waging war but the descent of
Iraq’s capital city into lawlessness under US occupation shows that it is
incompetent at maintaining public order and providing security for the
civilian population. The US has toppled Saddam and discovered that it
won’t be discovering any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So why is it
still there? And if the US military can’t ensure the safety of Iraqi
civilians and itself poses a danger to them, what is its role in that
country?’
"The question still stands and Iraqis are still being
killed in increasing numbers. How many more must die before the architects
of the ‘military solution’ for Iraq realise that the only sure way to
reduce violence is to stop inflicting it?" n
www.iraqbodycount.org
