Iraq war death toll at 162,000
Around 162,000 people, almost 80 percent of them civilians, were
killed in Iraq from the start of the 2003 US-led invasion up to last
year's withdrawal of American forces, a British NGO said on Monday.
Iraq Body Count (IBC) warned that, contrary to apparent trends in
figures released by the Iraqi government, the level of violence has
changed little from mid-2009, though attacks are markedly down from when
the country was in the throes of sectarian war in 2006 and 2007.
In all, the non-governmental organisation said an estimated 162,000
people were killed in Iraq in the nearly nine years of conflict.
It said around 79 percent of the fatalities were civilians,
while the remainder included US soldiers, Iraqi security forces, and
insurgents.
"The violence peaked in late 2006 but was sustained at high levels
until the second half of 2008, nearly 90 percent of the deaths occurred
by 2009," IBC said in a statement.
But it warned that "there has now been no noticeable downward trend
(in civilian deaths) since mid-2009."
"Recent trends indicate a persistent low-level conflict in Iraq that
will continue to kill civilians at a similar rate for years to come.
While these data indicate no improvement, time will tell whether the
withdrawal of US forces will have an effect on casualty levels."
US troops, who at their peak numbered nearly 170,000 on as many as
505 bases in Iraq, completed their withdrawal from the country on
December 18 and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki dubbed Saturday to be
"Iraq Day", marking when the bilateral pact allowing American forces to
stay expired.
IBC said it had recorded more than 114,000 civilian deaths in Iraq
since the invasion, and said the addition of figures from US military
logs published by whistleblower website WikiLeaks, as well as officially
recorded US and Iraqi security deaths and insurgent tolls, put the
overall figure at 162,000.
The worst non-civilian group affected were the Iraqi police, with
9,019 reported deaths, and Baghdad was the most dangerous city in the
country, with half of the recorded deaths, equating to 2.5 times the
national average.
A total of 4,474 US soldiers died in Iraq, as well.
AFP
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