A recent news report about civilian casualties in Iraq suggests that the rate of civilian deaths has decreased in recent months. However, it is still noteworthy that, despite the decrease, Iraqi civilians are still dying at over five times the rate of Iraqi security forces, and nearly four times the rate of U.S. forces. Clearly, this war is, whether the combatants admit it or not, harming mainly civilians.
Los Angeles Times, 2 July 2007
Iraq Sees Drop in Civilian Deaths
by Molly Hennessy-Fiske
Los Angeles Times
BAGHDAD–Monthly civilian casualties in Iraq dipped in June to the lowest level this year, according to the Iraqi government, but it was not immediately clear how accurate the statistics were or whether they were related to the increased presence of U.S. troops.
The figures released by the Iraqi Ministries of Health, Defense, and the Interior showed 1227 Iraqi civilians killed in June, compared with 1949 in May and 1646 in February, when the first of 28,500 additional U.S. troops arrived in Baghdad.
More Iraqi security force members were killed in June — 221 compared with 174 in May. But the number of militants killed also increased, according to the government, from 297 in May to 416 in June.
In the past three months, 331 U.S. troops have died, the deadliest quarter for U.S. forces since the invasion.
Experts caution that Iraq’s civilian death toll is inexact, and probably underestimates the toll because of the number of unreported deaths in the hinterlands and the lengthy time before mass graves are discovered, such as one found over the weekend outside Fallujah that officials said contained between 35 and 40 bodies.
June’s numbers also would be skewed by the four-day curfew imposed on Baghdad in the aftermath of the June 13 bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, which banned all vehicular traffic and kept most people off the streets.
U.S. military officials said it was too soon to tell whether a decline in civilian casualties was the result of a U.S. military increase and a wave of offensives that began two weeks ago targeting insurgent havens around Baghdad.
“We are not yet sure whether our operations are the cause of the decline. We are looking at that very carefully,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a military spokesman in Baghdad.
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