Small Wars Journal

Iraqi civilian deaths climb in 2011

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Tue, 01/03/2012 - 5:59am

Iraqi civilian deaths climb in 2011 - study

Reuters

The number of civilians killed in violence in Iraq rose slightly in 2011 from the previous year, as daily bombings and attacks continued to claim victims almost nine years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, a study showed on Monday.

A total of 4,059 civilians were killed in violent incidents in Iraq in 2011, compared to 3,976 in 2010, rights group Iraq Body Count said in its annual study.

That took the number of civilian deaths recorded since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam and unleashed a sectarian conflict to more than 114,000.

"The number of civilian deaths in Iraq in 2011 was almost at the same level as in 2010 - there has now been no noticeable downward trend since mid-2009," IBC said in a statement.

Comments

Wing

Tue, 01/03/2012 - 8:27pm

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Iraq Body Count's mandate is to cover the Iraq War. So they start at 2003. If you read any of their reports or breakdowns, you will see that the vast majority of deaths in Iraq were committed by Iraqis, and foreign jihadists, and they state that quite often.

AmericanPride

Tue, 01/03/2012 - 9:32am

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In light of the overthrow of the Libyan and Egyptian regimes and the turmoil in Syria, it is fanciful ideological speculation to state that invasion was the only "real" option to introduce democratic government to Iraq.

Jake Oates

Tue, 01/03/2012 - 8:31am

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I find it particularly interesting that that website quoted above www.iraqbodycount.org depicts a timeline from 2003 to the present. Conveniently absent from the website are the details of the estimated hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's that Saddam Hussein sentenced to death by the use of his chemical and biological weapons in the 80’s and 90’s. The website attempts to paint a picture that informs the public of the many atrocities the US military has brought upon the Iraqi people, but fails to accurately portray the very real facts that truly paint the story of a country in turmoil. Although US military involvement undoubtedly brought with it regrettable collateral damage to include civilian loss of life, it also brought a very real attempt at democracy. Prior to US involvement, the reality of hundreds of thousands of civilians dying was still a very real possibility, a chance at democracy was not.