Iraq’s government said at least 85,000 Iraqis were killed from 2004 until last year, officially answering one of the biggest questions of the conflict. What remains unanswered by the government is how many died in the 2003 US invasion and in the months of chaos that followed it.
A report by the Human Rights Ministry said 85,694 people were killed from the beginning of 2004 to Oct. 31 last year and 147,195 were wounded. The figures included Iraqi civilians, military and police, but did not cover US military deaths, insurgents or foreigners, including contractors. And it did not include the first months of the war after the 2003 US-led invasion.
The Associated Press reported similar figures in April based on government statistics showing that the government had recorded 87,215 Iraqi deaths from 2005 to February this year. The toll included violence ranging from catastrophic bombings to execution-style slayings.
Until the AP report, the government’s toll of Iraqi deaths had been one of the war’s most closely guarded secrets. Both supporters and opponents of the conflict have accused the other of manipulating the toll to sway public opinion.
The 85,694 represents about 0.3 percent of Iraq’s estimated 29 million population. In a sign of how significant the numbers are, that would be akin to the US losing about 900,000 people over a similar period.
Iraq’s death toll continued to climb on Wednesday when three near-simultaneous blasts struck the southern Shiite holy city of Karbala, killing at least six people.
According to the ministry’s report, the dead included 1,279 children and 2,334 women. At least 263 university professors, 21 judges, 95 lawyers and 269 journalists were killed — professions which were specifically targeted as the country descended into chaos.
The report indicated that 2006 was the deadliest year, with 32,622 people killed or found dead. The toll for 2004 was 11,313, rising to 15,817 the next year. The second-deadliest year in the period covered was 2007 with 19,155 killed or found dead. The toll fell to 6,787 last year, the lowest yearly count for the period.
The count also included 15,000 unidentified bodies that were buried after going unclaimed by families. An additional 10,000 people were also listed as missing, although Human Rights Ministry official Kamil Amin said it was not known whether there was overlap between the missing and unidentified counts.
The report does not contain figures from 2003, a period during which there was no functioning Iraqi government.
The most recent numbers from Iraq Body Count, a private London-based group that has tracked civilian casualties since the war began, puts the number of civilian casualties as of Wednesday at 93,540.
The toll released on Tuesday was based on death certificates issued by the Health Ministry. The tolls measure only violent deaths — people killed in attacks such as the shootings, bombings, mortar attacks and beheadings that have ravaged Iraq. They exclude indirect factors such as damage to infrastructure, healthcare and stress.
While the Pentagon maintains meticulous records of the number of US troops killed — at least 4,349 as of Wednesday — it does not publicly release comprehensive Iraqi casualty figures.
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