Contractor deaths up 17 percent across Iraq in 2007 [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Houston Chronicle

Feb. 9, 2008, 11:36PM
Contractor deaths up 17 percent across Iraq in 2007
As 'surge' took effect, spike in killings subsided


By DAVID IVANOVICH
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The number of civilian contractors reported killed in Iraq jumped 17 percent in 2007 and accounted for more than one in four deaths associated with the U.S. occupation last year.

In a year when President Bush sent 30,000 additional troops into Iraq in what's been called the "surge," at least 353 civilian contractors working for the U.S. government were killed, up from 301 in 2006, Labor Department records show.

"Incredible," replied Steven Schooner, a law professor and associate dean at the George Washington University Law School, when told of the contractor death toll.

U.S. military personnel suffered their deadliest year of the war in 2007, but both contractor and troop deaths began declining dramatically in the second half of the year, according to various tallies examined by the Houston Chronicle.



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