10/22/2010

“Leaked Pentagon files obtained by the Guardian contain details of more than 100,000 people killed in Iraq following the US-led invasion, including more than 15,000 deaths that were previously unrecorded. British ministers have repeatedly refused to concede the existence of any official statistics on Iraqi deaths. US General Tommy Franks claimed in 2002: ‘We don’t do body counts.’ The mass of leaked documents provides the first detailed tally by the US military of Iraqi fatalities. Troops on the ground filed secret field reports over six years of the occupation, purporting to tot up every casualty, military and civilian. …The logs record a total of 109,032 violent deaths between 2004 and 2009. It is claimed that 66,081 of these were civilians. A further 23,984 deaths are classed as ‘enemy’ and 15,196 as members of the Iraqi security forces. The logs also include the deaths of 3,771 US and allied soldiers.”

 – David Leigh, “Iraq War Logs Reveal 15,000 Previously Unlisted Civilian Deaths,” The Guardian, Oct. 22, 2010