Middle East | Deaths in Iraq |
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| Monday, 12 March 2007 | ||||||
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This page examines deaths in Iraq from the first Gulf War, through the Economic Sanctions and through the current war and occupation. It includes deaths of civilians, civilian contractors and military personnel. Reports of Iraqi civilian deaths are difficult to discern because there are no official government estimates. Even though Iraq War Facts is regularly updated deaths in Iraq increase at a rate faster than we can report. In the facts below are citations to original sources that you should check for the most up-to-date figures. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Columbia University School of Nursing and the Al-Mustansiriya University Medical School in Bagdad, report in The Lancet Medical Journal that around 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died since the United States invaded Iraq. Most of those who died were women and children. Air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most of the deaths. While the major causes of death before the invasion were heart attack, stroke, and chronic illness, the risk of death from violence after the invasion was 58 times higher than in the period before the war. “Mortality Before and After the 2003 Invasion Cluster Sample Survey, The Lancet, October 29, 2004; 364:1857-64, http://www.thelancet.com. See also: "Study puts Iraqi toll at 100,000" CNN 29, October 2004. 1, February 2005 http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/29/iraq.deaths/ According to Iraq Body Count, which develops a database of media-reported civilian deaths, there has been a minimum of 15,612 and maximum 17,842 reported Iraqi civilian deaths resulting from the US-led military intervention in Iraq. There is no official U.S. government estimate of civilian deaths. When asked about the number General Tommy Franks said: “We don't do body counts.” This was repeated by General Thomas F. Metz have said as recently as November 9, 2004. In addition, the Iraqi Health Ministry was ordered to stop its own count of civilian deaths. At least 232 employees of private contractors have been killed in Iraq while working on U.S. military and reconstruction contracts, according to a quarterly report to Congress by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. As of February 1, 2005 - 1,438 US troops have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom, 326 of the U.S. soldiers have died in non-hostile action since the start of the war. As of February 1, 2005 - 171 non-U.S. coalition troops have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2003 there were at least 21 suicides committed by U.S. troops serving in Iraq. As of February 1, 2005 the Iraq war has cost the lives of 86 Britons, seven Bulgarians, one Dane, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Hungarian, 20 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 16 Poles, one Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 17 Ukrainians. Source: "War in Iraq." CNN 1, February 2005. 1, February 2005 http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/ Beginning in 1991 through 2000 the UN, led by the United States, imposed economic sanctions on Iraq. In 1997 the following summary of the impact was reported Rick McDowel, the American Friends Service Committee Baghdad, Iraq Representative who has been reporting on human rights issues in the Middle East since 1988: To date, more children have died in Iraq than the combined toll of two atomic bombs on Japan and the ethnic cleansing of former Yugoslavia. The UN's Department of Humanitarian Affairs reports that Iraq's public health services are nearing a total breakdown from a lack of basic medicines, life-saving drugs, and essential medical supplies. The lack of clean water-50 percent of all rural people have no access to potable water-and the collapse of waste water treatment facilities in most urban areas are contributing to the rapidly deteriorating state of public health. Air borne and water borne diseases are on the rise, while deaths related to diarrheal diseases have tripled in an increasingly unhealthy environment. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports a six fold increase in the mortality rate for children under five, an explosive rise in the incidence of endemic infections, such as cholera and typhoid, and a markedly elevated incidence of measles, poliomyelitis, and tetanus. Malaria has reached epidemic levels. The WHO further states that the majority of Iraqis have subsisted on a semi-starvation diet for the past several years. Reports from UNICEF and other UN agencies operating in Iraq estimate that over one million civilians, mostly children under age five, have died from malnutrition and disease as a result of the embargo. Malaria, cholera and typhoid, which were largely eliminated by Iraq's government, have now reached epidemic proportions. Raw sewage pours into the drinking water for much of Iraq as a result of the bombing of the electrical, sewage and water systems; the electrical systems cannot be repaired due to the impoverishment of Iraq; and import of chlorine has been prohibited and is now allowed only in limited quantities.
Source: "Gulf War Facts." CNN 2001. 1, February 2005 http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/gulf.war/facts/gulfwar/ 467 U.S soldiers were wounded in the first Gulf War. In June 1991, the U.S. estimated that more than 100,000 Iraqi soldiers died in combat. http://democracyrising.us/content/view/31/74/
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