WASHINGTON - Mach 19 - As the anniversary of the Iraq invasion approaches, Iraq Body Count has been able to establish the names of almost 700 civilians killed in Iraq between March 19th 2003 and February 29th 2004 as a direct consequence of the US/UK invasion and subsequent occupation.

The list, periodically updated and permanently available on the Iraq Body Count website http://www.iraqbodycount.net/names.htm, details (where known) name, age, gender, place of death, cause of death, and the media sources from which they were obtained.

Although this list provides details for less than 7% of the 10,000 civilians reported killed during the same period (see http://www.iraqbodycount.net/bodycount.htm), it is the closest so far to a truly comprehensive accounting and memorial for the civilian dead in Iraq. Among the 692 deaths listed there are 106 females, 421 males and 94 known to be under 18 years of age.

As world opinion increasingly turns against the US-led coalition for the lies that forced war on a powerless country, and for the chaos into which Iraq has now sunk, the human details pieced together in the Iraq Body Count list paint in graphic and poignant form the terrible, true cost of this war: the pointless loss of husbands, wives, sons and daughters of a proud but suffering people.

John Sloboda, co-founder of Iraq Body Count said "We hope that many organisations, agencies, and web-sites will wish to refer to this list and carry a link to it. Now, in this anniversary week, it has never been more important for us to offer the respect to those victims of war and civil disorder that has been denied them by the US and UK governments, as well as by the officials in Baghdad that they control."

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