Group: 25,000 Civilian Deaths in Iraq

The new estimate was much lower than the figure of 98,000 civilian deaths that appeared in a study in medical journal The Lancet in October 2004.

"The ever-mounting Iraqi death toll is the forgotten cost of the decision to go to war in Iraq," said John Sloboda, a psychology professor at Keele University in central England and co-founder of the group.

Iraq Body Count found:

• U.S.-led coalition forces were responsible for 37.3 percent of the total. About three-quarters of those fatalities occurred during the invasion phase up to May 1, 2003.

• "Predominantly criminal killings" linked to the huge crime wave that struck Iraq after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's government accounted for 35.6 percent.

• Insurgency, or anti-occupation, forces were responsible for 9.5 percent.

• Deaths caused by suicide bombs and other attacks that lacked a clearly identifiable military objective amounted to 11 percent. Iraq Body Count said there would likely be some overlap between this category and the "anti-occupation forces" one.

• U.S.-led troops and anti-occupation forces were involved in a further 2.5 percent.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050719/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_civilian_deaths

I can't get my head around the figures for women and kids; even assuming that none were killed post-invasion (i.e., after 5/1/03) it still means that bombs that hit civilians during the invasion preferentially hit adult men. Even if there's the claim that women aren't allowed out of the house, that doesn't cut it: then you'd expect the bombs that hit residences to hit mostly women.

I had exactly the opposite problem watching the tv footage in April/May 2003, which showed hospital wards brimming over with women and kids ... but almost no men. "The" explanation at the time--the men were in the field. (--> the overwhelming majority of the Baghdad civilian deaths during the invasion should have been women and children.)

Undoubtedly the greatest number were killed in the bombings in March an April, 2003.

BS study.

civilians being killed before 5/1/03.


6616 from 20 March to 9 Apr, 266 from 10-30 April.

The numbers are striking, but I don't know if I believe them or not--if only because the sex ratios don't make sense to me.

25,000 is such a scary number.

this is an outrage.