January, 02 2012, 07:00am EDT
Iraqi Deaths from Violence 2003-2011
Analysis and overview from Iraq Body Count (IBC)
LONDON
The 9th year of the conflict in Iraq marks the formal withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. As well as examining recent trends in documented civilian deaths from violence, IBC's 2011 analysis (available here) provides an overview of the entire conflict, including of civilian deaths in which US-led coalition forces were directly involved. Main findings are:
RECENT TRENDS:
- 4,059 civilians were reported killed in 2011, a slightly higher number than in 2010.
- Civilian deaths attributable to anti-government/occupation attacks have noticeably increased in 2011: 1,172 in 2011, up from 888 in 2010.
- The rate of Iraqi civilian deaths caused by US-led coalition forces has declined steadily from 2009, while the rate caused by Iraqi state forces has increased.
The number of civilian deaths in Iraq in 2011 was almost at the same level as in 2010 - there has now been no noticeable downward trend since mid-2009. As observed in IBC's previous annual report, recent trends indicate a persistent low-level conflict in Iraq that will continue to kill civilians at a similar rate for years to come. While these data indicate no improvement, time will tell whether the withdrawal of US forces will have an effect on casualty levels.
CIVILIANS KILLED BY US-LED COALITION:
- 14,705 (13%) of all documented civilian deaths were reported as being directly caused by the US-led coalition.
- Of the 4,040 civilian victims of US-led coalition forces for whom age data was available, 1,201 (29%) were children.
- Over half of the civilian deaths caused by US-led coalition forces occurred during the 2003 invasion and the sieges of Fallujah in 2004.
On a per-day basis, the highest intensity of civilian killings over a sustained period occurred during the first three "Shock and Awe" weeks of the 2003 invasion, when civilian deaths averaged 317 per day and totalled over 6,640 by April 9th, nearly all attributable to US-led coalition-forces, reaching 7,286 by the time of President G.W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech of 1st May 2003.
At recent, much lower levels of overall violence in Iraq, it has taken nearly the past two years of violence (resulting in some 8,000 deaths) by all parties to exceed the coalition-caused invasion civilian death toll of those first weeks of the conflict in March-April 2003.
FULL 2003-2011 CONTEXT:
The total number of violent civilian deaths recorded since the 2003 invasion has now exceeded 114,000.
- Combining IBC civilian data with official Iraqi and US combatant death figures and data from the WikiLeaks-released Iraq War Logs, we estimate the documented death toll across all categories since March 2003 to be 162,000, of whom 79% were civilians.
- The violence peaked in late 2006 but was sustained at high levels until the second half of 2008 - nearly 90% of the deaths occurred by 2009.
- 60,024 of the civilian dead were reported killed by small arms gunfire; 34,073 by ground-based explosive weapons (such as IEDs and suicide attacks); and 5,648 by airstrikes.
- Of the 45,779 victims for whom IBC was able to obtain age data, 3,911 (8.54%) were children under age 18.
- Police forces have been a major target, with 9,019 deaths reported - by far the largest toll of any professional group.
- Baghdad, which contains roughly one fifth of the country's population, has suffered roughly half of the recorded civilian deaths, or about 2.5 times more than the national average.
Data contained in the Iraq War Logs released by WikiLeaks (the largest official source on the conflict to have become publicly available) have already added a confirmed 1,300 civilian deaths to the IBC database. 629 of these deaths were directly caused by US-led coalition forces and 56 by Iraq security forces. We estimate that further analysis of the Logs will eventually add another 13,000 civilian deaths.
Iraq Body Count (IBC) is a citizens' initiative devoted to recording the violent civilian deaths that have resulted from the 2003 military intervention in Iraq. Its public database includes deaths caused by US-led coalition forces and paramilitary or criminal attacks by others. The project was founded in January 2003 by volunteers from the UK and USA who felt a responsibility to ensure that the human consequences of military intervention in Iraq were not neglected.
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Asked about which specific reports he was referring to, the mayor just said that the deployment could occur as soon as Friday, so he had to take "immediate, drastic action to protect our people from federal overreach."
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White House officials have distinctly said the operation in Chicago would mirror Los Angeles more than DC, which saw thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of active-duty Marines—some of whom are stationed there through November—activated to quell protests against immigration raids.
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"Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, is endangering the health of the American people now and into the future. He must resign."
That's how US Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) began a New York Times op-ed on Saturday, amid mounting calls for Kennedy to leave the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), by choice or force, following the ouster of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez.
As Sanders detailed in the Times—and a Thursday letter to Senate HELP Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) demanding a congressional probe—Monarez was fired after reportedly refusing to "act as a rubber stamp for his dangerous policies." Her exit led to resignations and a staff walkout at the CDC, which is now being led by Jim O'Neill, a Kennedy aide and biotech investor.
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Sanders pointed to guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, and World Health Organization, and called out Kennedy's comments on autism, Covid-19 and polio vaccines, and immunizations in general.
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Sanders, a leading advocate of Medicare for All, also took aim at the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed last month.
"America's healthcare system is already dysfunctional and wildly expensive, and yet the Trump administration will be throwing an estimated 15 million people off their health insurance through a cut of over $1 trillion to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act," he noted. "This cut is also expected to result in the closing of or the decline in services at hundreds of nursing homes, hospitals, and community health centers. As a result of cuts to the Affordable Care Act, health insurance costs will soar for millions of Americans. That is not Making America Healthy Again."
"Secretary Kennedy is putting Americans' lives in danger, and he must resign," Sanders concluded. "In his place, President Trump must listen to doctors and scientists and nominate a health secretary and a CDC director who will protect the health and well-being of the American people, not carry out dangerous policies based on conspiracy theories."
Bernie Sanders is right—RFK Jr. must resign. His leadership is an assault on science, public health, and truth. We’re not just talking politics; we’re talking lives. #ResignKennedy #ScienceFirst”www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/o...
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— Elizabeth (@elizathewell.bsky.social) August 30, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Doctors, journalists, and others praised the senator's op-ed, with Trauma surgeon Mark Hoofnagle saying that "Bernie nails it."
Pennsylvania State University professor and A Desire Called America author Christian Haines wrote on the social media platform Bluesky that the piece was "clear and incisive, though I wish it didn't need to be said."
Also sharing the post on Bluesky, former Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse said: "It's delusional for anyone to think that RFK Jr. and Donald Trump are making America healthy again. With Kennedy's war against science, truth, and vaccines and Trump's war against Medicaid, their movement should be called MAKING AMERICA UNHEALTHY AGAIN."
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