Stories related to: civilian casualties

"We don't do body counts," an American general notoriously said not long after the US-led invasion of Iraq. Five years later, there is no credible count of civilian deaths in the Iraq war, the Guardian reports in a look at the wildly different estimates that have been promoted—ranging from under 100,000 to well over a million—and how they're put together. More »

Five years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, its health care system is “now in worse shape than ever,” and millions of Iraqis still don’t have clean water and medical care, Reuters reports. “The humanitarian situation in most of the country remains among the most critical in the world,” the Red Cross said in a new report. More »

The US military has fired missiles at a terror target in southern Somalia, CNN reports. The strike destroyed two houses, killing three women and three children and wounding 20 others, a local commissioner reports. A US official says the strike was aimed at a "facility where there were known terrorists" associated with al-Qaeda. More »

Iraq’s civilian casualties rose 36% in February, with 633 suffering violent deaths and another 701 wounded, the Iraqi government reported today. That's up from 466 dead in January. The spike reflects three extraordinarily bloody bombings, including pet market bombings in early February that killed 99, and a suicide bombing that killed 63 Shiite pilgrims last week, Reuters reports. More »

American military forces accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians and injured three during raids south of Baghdad Saturday, US officials revealed today. The incident occurred near Iskandariyah, when a helicopter air strike was ordered on a checkpoint after a convoy of US troops in pursuit of Al Qaeda in Iraq came under attack. Iraqi police said American forces had erroneously fired on Iraqi civilian guardsmen helping the US effort against Al Qaeda. More »

More than 150,000 Iraqis—about 120 a day—were killed in the first three years of the Iraqi war following the US invasion in 2003, a new study says. The estimate, from the WHO and the Iraqi government, is said to be the most scientific study yet of the civilian death toll, but the true figure may never be known, the AP reports. More »

A coalition air strike based on faulty intelligence killed at least 22 Afghan road workers today, said Afghan officials. The engineers and laborers were building a road for US forces in the mountains of Nuristan in the east. They were asleep in two tents when the bombardment killed all of them, said the company director. More »

A 20-year-old man died yesterday after Maryland police shocked him with a Taser during a confrontation with a sheriff's deputy, according to police. Deputies responded to a call to find four people fighting. Police used a Taser on one of the men, who fell unconscious and was later pronounced dead at a local hospital, police said. More »

An enraged Iraqi provincial governor has accused US troops of firing on civilian vehicles south of Baghdad today, allegedly wounding six. Ahmed Marzok threatened to sever ties with the US due to the "barbaric, brutal, and illegal" attack. "We were driving on one side of the road and when they came we pulled aside, but they opened fire," said a minibus driver. More »

Iraqi officials are sorting through conflicting reports of an American raid in the Baghdad Shiite enclave of Sadr City yesterday that the US military said killed 49 "criminals" and Iraqis said left 17 people dead, including an elderly woman and several babies, and many wounded. The civilian casualties provoked another round of charges that the American military uses excessive force; PM Nuri al-Maliki met with Gen. David Petraeus to protest the killings, CNN reported. More »

A UK polling firm has put the Iraqi civilian death toll at an alarming 1.2 million. Though the US claims sectarian violence casualties have halved since June, neither they nor the Iraqi government maintains a tally of civilian losses, the Los Angeles Times reports. But both call the study’s number exaggerated. More »

The Marine Corps dropped all charges today against two Marines tied to an alleged massacre of 24 Iraqis in 2005. Citing holes in prosecution evidence, the general reviewing the charges cleared Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, accused of murdering three civilians to avenge a comrade's death, and Capt. Randy Stone, charged with turning a blind eye to the incident in Haditha. More »

Technology allows US forces to know with precision how many civilians will die in targeted bombings—and at the beginning of the Iraq war, only those attacks expected to kill more than 30 civilians required approval from Rumsfeld or Bush, Salon reports. “‘Accident’ is not the right word,” said an activist. More »

Of the 500 Afghan civilians killed in the first half of 2007, more were victims of US and NATO strikes than of Taliban insurgents, the LA Times reports. Among the main causes of collateral human damage are Western air attacks on walled compounds and "jittery troops" shooting civilians in the wake of car bombings. More »

Worsening widespread concerns about civilian deaths in Afghanistan, a U.S.-led coalition bombing killed seven boys yesterday at a compound in the eastern part of the country. The target, which contained a mosque and a school, was suspected of housing Al-Qaeda militants. "We had a misunderstanding," the governor of the province told the AP. More »

Private contractors have been killed  in Iraq in record numbers this year, the New York Times reports, as the deployment of U.S. forces in outside the Green Zone amps up the danger for both soldiers and civilians. Through March, there were at least 146 killed, compared to 224 troops during the same period. More »

U.S. airstrikes killed 21 Afghan civilians in eastern Afghanistan late last night, just hours after the U.S. offered an official apology to the families of 19 killed in a March attack. The civilian deaths—as many as 1,000 in 2006 alone—are stirring unrest against NATO forces, even from on high, the Economist reports. More »