Group estimates Iraq dead since war's start at 25,000

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/07/19/news/toll.php

BAGHDAD Nearly 25,000 Iraqi civilians, police officers, and army recruits have been killed since the war began in March 2003, according to a survey by Iraq Body Count, an American-British nongovernmental group.

The U.S. military disputed the findings and said it did not target civilians. "We do everything we can to avoid civilian casualties in all of our operations," said Lieutenant Colonel Steve Boylan, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad. "Since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom until now, we have categorically not targeted civilians. We take great care in all operations to ensure we go after the intended targets."

Iraq Body Count said that the casualty numbers included civilians, army and police recruits, and serving police officers. They do not include serving Iraqi combatant deaths, for which, the group said, there are "no reliable accounts." The group took its data, including figures showing that more than 42,000 civilians were wounded in the same period, from an analysis of more than 10,000 news media reports.

The survey would also appear not to capture the full extent of the devastation caused by insurgent car bombings. Over the past 18 months, hundreds of suicide car bombs have exploded around the country, killing well over 2,000 people.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. No, over 100k

100,000 Civilian Deaths Estimated in Iraq

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 29, 2004; Page A16

One of the first attempts to independently estimate the loss of civilian life from the Iraqi war has concluded that at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians may have died because of the U.S. invasion.

The analysis, an extrapolation based on a relatively small number of documented deaths, indicated that many of the excess deaths have occurred due to aerial attacks by coalition forces, with women and children being frequent victims, wrote the international team of public health researchers making the calculations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7967-2004Oct28.html

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

2. That's what I thought...

...so why does Raw Story have a link on their front page right now (Milestone: 2000 coalition dead...Group says 25,000 Iraqis, too)?

http://www.rawstory.com/

I've read the 100,000 reports before...

[moggie]

3. They're measuring two different things

The Lancet study (the source of the 100k figure) is about excess deaths due to the war. Wars have indirect casualties in addition to those shot/blown up/tortured to death.