Sunday, June 25, 2006
News RhetIraq: Number of Iraqi Dead
Source: The Los Angeles Times via TheState.com
Quotes: From article titled, "Iraqi death toll reaches 50,000"
At least 50,000 Iraqis have died violently since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, according to statistics from the Baghdad morgue, the Iraqi Health Ministry and other agencies — a toll 20,000 higher than previously acknowledged by the Bush administration.
Many more Iraqis are thought to have been killed but have not been counted because of serious lapses in recording the number of deaths in the chaotic first year after the invasion, when there was no functioning government, and because of continued spotty reporting nationwide.
The toll, which is dominated by civilians but probably also includes some security forces and insurgents, is daunting: Proportionately, it’s as if 600,000 Americans had been killed nationwide during the past three years.
Iraqi government officials say violent deaths in some regions have been grossly undercounted, notably in the troubled province of Anbar, where local health workers often cannot compile the data because of violence, security crackdowns, electrical shortages and failing telephone networks.
The Health Ministry acknowledged the undercount. In addition, the ministry said its figures exclude the three provinces that make up the semiautonomous northern region of Kurdistan because Kurdish officials do not provide numbers to Baghdad.
Quotes: From article titled, "Iraqi death toll reaches 50,000"
At least 50,000 Iraqis have died violently since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, according to statistics from the Baghdad morgue, the Iraqi Health Ministry and other agencies — a toll 20,000 higher than previously acknowledged by the Bush administration.
Many more Iraqis are thought to have been killed but have not been counted because of serious lapses in recording the number of deaths in the chaotic first year after the invasion, when there was no functioning government, and because of continued spotty reporting nationwide.
The toll, which is dominated by civilians but probably also includes some security forces and insurgents, is daunting: Proportionately, it’s as if 600,000 Americans had been killed nationwide during the past three years.
Iraqi government officials say violent deaths in some regions have been grossly undercounted, notably in the troubled province of Anbar, where local health workers often cannot compile the data because of violence, security crackdowns, electrical shortages and failing telephone networks.
The Health Ministry acknowledged the undercount. In addition, the ministry said its figures exclude the three provinces that make up the semiautonomous northern region of Kurdistan because Kurdish officials do not provide numbers to Baghdad.
