THE NUMBER OF THE DEAD (AMERICAN SOLDIERS): 1770
THE NUMBER OF THE DEAD (IRAQI CIVILIANS): 25,000 AND COUNTING:
FROM CTV:
A British-American advocacy group puts the civilian cost of the Iraq war at about 25,000 lives.
"We were fearful that there would be many lives lost," said John Sloboda of Iraq Body Count and the Oxford Research Project on Tuesday.
"We were also fearful that the governments prosecuting this war would not be doing an official count themselves. Both predictions unfortunately turned out to be true."
The 25-page report provides analysis from March 2003, when the U.S. and supporting countries invaded Iraq, to March of this year.
About 30 per cent of the casualties occurred in March and April 2003. On May 1, 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush declared major combat operations to be over in Iraq.
But if one looks at the post-invasion period, there were almost twice as many killed in year two (11,351) to year one (6,215).
Here is a breakdown of who's doing the killing:
- U.S. and allied forces: 37 per cent
- Criminal attacks: 36 per cent
- "Unknown agents" attacking non-military targets: 11 per cent
- "Anti-occupation" forces: Nine per cent
The two most dangerous places in Iraq are Baghdad, where almost half (11,264) of all deaths occurred and Fallujah, with 1,874 deaths.
Fallujah has been an insurgent stronghold. U.S. forces conducted a major battle there last November.
The most lethal weaponry is explosives, accounting for 53 per cent of all deaths. Of deaths due to explosives, almost two-thirds were due to air strikes.
Children were most affected by air strikes, suffering disproportionate deaths, especially from unexploded ordnance like cluster bomblets.
Women and children account for 20 per cent of civilian deaths.
The number of wounded is estimated at 42,500, with 40 per cent of those occurring during the invasion phase.
Coalition forces haven't kept their own statistics. Gen. Tommy Franks, a former U.S. commander, once said, "We don't do body counts."
Listen to the report from NPR's All Things Considered.
