Report: Iraq Air Raids Hit Mostly Women and Children

[Hissyspit]

Source: Independent UK

Iraq air raids hit mostly women and children
Report urges review of military strategy when targeting urban areas

By Kim Sengupta, Defence correspondent
Thursday, 16 April 2009

Air strikes and artillery barrages have taken a heavy toll among the most vulnerable of the Iraqi people, with children and women forming a disproportionate number of the dead. Analysis carried out for the research group Iraq Body Count (IBC) found that 39 per cent of those killed in air raids by the US-led coalition were children and 46 per cent were women. Fatalities caused by mortars, used by American and Iraqi government forces as well as insurgents, were 42 per cent children and 44 per cent women.

Twelve per cent of those killed by suicide bombings, mainly the tool of militant Sunni groups, were children and 16 per cent were females. One in five (21 per cent) of those killed by car bombs, used by both Shia and Sunni fighters, was a child; one in four (28 per cent) was a woman. The figures, compiled by academics at King’s College and Royal Holloway, University of London, show that hi-tech weaponry has caused lethal damage to those in the population who would be furthest away from the conflict.

- snip -

The report, The Weapons That Kill Civilians, Deaths of Children and Noncombatants in Iraq, was compiled from a sample of 60,481 deaths in 14,196 events over a five-year period since the 2003 invasion. Civilian casualties from concentrated bouts of violence, such as the two sieges of Fallujah, were excluded. IBC estimates that the total deaths in the conflict so far number 99,774. The medical journal The Lancet has maintained in another study that more than 600,000 people were killed in the first three years of the war. IBC holds that the indiscriminate nature of the fatalities caused by air strikes shows they should not be used in urban areas.

Growing anger over civilian casualties caused by air raids in another front of the “war on terror”, Afghanistan, has led to the US, UK and their Nato partners reviewing their policy of using warplanes. Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, recently said this had become the most contentious issue between him and Western powers.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-air-raids-hit-mostly-women-and-children-1669282.html

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. USA's indiscriminate killings of civilians will haunt it for decades, maybe even longer.

.
.
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The War-Machine's fear of losing its own members result in it using weapons from afar.

In other words, they have no idea who they are killing until they are dead.

The Iraqis and the Afghans know . . .

and the children, relatives and friends of those slaughtered will grow up,

and remember who did this to them.

Some will want/need to avenge these deaths.

US America has killed itself as an empire.

As all Empires seem to do . . .

[malaise]

10. Haunt who exactly

The fugging Fundie right wing is proud of this slaughter.

[The Wielding Truth]

2. From 2004 to 2007. Has there been more recent bombings?

I hope not!

[riverdeep]

3. But, but,

they killed 3000 of ours on September 11th, so anything goes. Glen Beck told me so.

Amazing that some people are claiming the Iraq war was now the right thing to do because supposedly the surge worked. Firstly, it didn't work, the surge had nothing to do with the decrease in violence:

Satellite images taken at night show heavily Sunni Arab neighborhoods of Baghdad began emptying before a U.S. troop surge in 2007, graphic evidence of ethnic cleansing that preceded a drop in violence, according to a report published on Friday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1953066020080919
("Satellite images show ethnic cleanout in Iraq")

Secondly, Sadam was a contained threat, as much or more than any number of horrible dictators we've left alone. The only reason to risk the lives of troops, or to engage in the carnage that will inevitably be a part of war, is because there is no other choice. That wasn't the case here.

Thirdly, the invasion has made us drastically less safe. First, by bringing Al Qaeda to Iraq and allowing them to use the invasion as a recruiting tool. Secondly, by allowing the real threat-Afghanistan and Pakistan-to foment and deteriorate. And lastly, by increasing our debt and helping to send our economy, and that of the world, into ruin.

Osama Bin Laden had no better ally than George Bush, that dumbass played right into his hands. I doubt he could have imagined the rousing success (from his point of view), 9/11 would turn out to be.

As far as this report, I'm sad to say I don't think most Americans really care. To the limited attention span of the public, the Iraq war is yesterday's papers.

[dcindian]

4. This is why we have to stay there.

The killing ain't done yet.

[OwnedByFerrets]

5. One Million dead and going strong!

We should be so fucking proud as a nation.:puke:

[itsrobert]

6. Help me with my math

"39 per cent of those killed in air raids by the US-led coalition were children and 46 per cent were women. Fatalities caused by mortars, used by American and Iraqi government forces as well as insurgents, were 42 per cent children and 44 per cent women."


39 + 46 = 85 So only 15 percent were male?
42 + 44 = 86 So only 14 percent were mail?

Or is it calculated the the female/male figure is sepearte from the children and 54 and 56 percent were males?

[EFerrari]

8. Looks like there's a male/female calculation and a child/adult one. n/t

[EFerrari]

7. I heard something last night about the security situation in Iraq

that sounds pretty bad. It looks like the Iraqi government is re-detaining all the prisoners the US released. Can't find anything in English but the report starts at 6:40 in the last edition of Mosaic (there's an English audio track):

http://www.linktv.org/mosaic

IS this an attempt to put the Sunni opposition behind bars? Looks like it.

[Hissyspit]

9. .

[Blandocyte]

11. Something to reflect on during tax season

Sad.