U.S. Military Tallies Deaths of Iraqi Civilians and Forces

[cory777]

Source: Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — A new United States military tally puts the death toll of Iraqi civilians and security forces at almost 77,000 people between January 2004 and August 2008, a period that includes the bloodiest years of the war.

The tally falls thousands short of one compiled by the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry.

The information was quietly posted on the Web site of the United States Central Command without explanation in July and was discovered this week during a routine check by The Associated Press for civilian and military casualty numbers that were first requested in 2005 through the Freedom of Information Act. The new figures represent the American military’s largest release of raw data on deaths during the Iraq war.

A spokesman at Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., could not answer basic questions on Thursday about the information, including whether it counted government-backed Sunni fighters among Iraqi security forces or insurgents among civilians.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/world/middleeast/15iraq.html

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