[Peace-discuss] US military kills 4X as many civilians as suicide bombers, etc.

[C. G. Estabrook]

[From today's Guardian/UK. --CGE]

  25,000 Iraqi civilians killed since invasion
  US military 'responsible for one-third of deaths'
  Jonathan Steele and Richard Norton-Taylor
  Wednesday July 20, 2005
  Guardian

Nearly 25,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the two
years since the invasion, and four times as many died at the
hands of US-led forces as from suicide bombers and other
insurgents, according to a detailed study of the human cost of
the conflict.

The survey, which calculates the toll of dead and injured
since March 2003, also shows that the rate of criminal
violence has risen dramatically.

According to Iraq Body Count and the Oxford Research Group,
the two independent researchers behind the study, the figures
in the report should be regarded as the "baseline of the
minimum number of deaths".

It has concluded that

· at least 24,865 civilians were killed up to March 19 2005;

· 9,270 or 37% died at the hands of the Americans or other
coalition forces (86 were killed by British troops, 23 by
Italians, and 13 by Ukrainians). Most of these deaths are
thought to have occurred during the conflict and its aftermath.

· The second largest cause of death (36%) was criminal violence.

· Anti-occupation forces have been responsible for 2,353 deaths.

· At least 50 babies up to the age of two have been killed;

· 1,281 children aged between three and 17 have also died.

Every death was verified by at least two sources before being
included in the research, based on figures from Iraqi
mortuaries, the Iraqi ministry of health, and media reports.

One of the many surprises in the survey is the huge surge in
crime since the invasion.

The survey points to the criminal murder rate soaring 20 fold
since the invasion.

"This is the big untold story", said John Sloboda of the
Oxford Research Group.

"There has been a massive breakdown in law and order and
almost total impunity for criminals."

The total number of deaths in the study is significantly lower
than the estimated 98,000 figure in a disputed study in the
medical journal The Lancet last autumn.

"The key point is that all the studies are talking about tens
of thousands of additional deaths," said Prof Sloboda. He said
yesterday's report provided "an absolutely firm, unshakeable
baseline of the minimum number of violent deaths".

He points to an admission by the then Foreign Office minister,
Bill Rammell, in a parliamentary answer on January 11: "The
Ministry of Defence has not assisted the Iraqi government
efforts to collate casualty numbers. We have no methodology
which would allow us to produce accurate estimates."

The study shows that more than 45,000 Iraqis have been wounded
since March 2003, two-thirds of them by coalition forces.

Almost twice as many civilians (11,351) died in the second
year after the invasion as the first.

The report does not cover deaths of Iraqi forces in combat,
but it does include deaths among policemen and recruits
queuing to join the security forces in an insurgency which
appears to have gathered pace in recent months.

The UK government said yesterday there was no reliable or
accurate account of the number of deaths in Iraq and that
people were now being killed primarily because of the insurgency.

Yesterday, the violence continued, with a Sunni member of the
constitutional committee being gunned down outside a Baghdad
restaurant.

The committee suspended its work yesterday after news that
gunmen had killed Mijbil Issa, who was shot, with two
companions, as he left a restaurant in the Karradah district
of Baghdad.

Issa was among 15 Sunni Arabs added last month to a committee
of parliamentarians in charge of drafting a new constitution
by August 15.

The addition of the Sunnis was an attempt to reach out to the
once dominant but now alienated minority that forms the
backbone of the insurgency.

Two Sunni committee members have already resigned after
threats from Sunni militants who violently oppose any dealings
with Iraq's new political establishment.

The head of the constitutional committee, Humam Hammoudi,
condemned the killing.

"The aim behind the assassination is to hinder the political
process, but we will continue our work, and so will our Sunni
brothers too, in drafting the constitution," he said,
promising to upgrade security for all members of the commission.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005