Casualties of the Iraq War

US Casualties returning to Dover AFB in a C130

Casualties from the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the ensuing U.S.-led occupation of Iraq have come in many forms, and the accuracy of the information available on different types of casualties varies greatly.

For troops in the U.S.-led coalition, the death toll is carefully tracked and updated daily, and the names and photographs of those killed in action as well as in accidents have been published widely. Accounts of the number of wounded, though, vary widely, partly because it's not obvious what should be counted as "wounded": should we only include injuries serious enough to put a soldier out of commission? Should we include illnesses, or injuries caused by accidents, or only injuries caused by hostile engagement? Sources using different definitions may arrive at very different numbers, and often the precise definition is not clearly specified.

On the Iraqi side, however, information on both military and civilian casualties is both less accurate and less reliable, and given the political significance of these figures and the varied agendas of all parties, no source can be considered free of bias. At best, we learn of estimates of casualty levels either from reporters on the scene, from officials of involved organizations, or from groups that summarize information on incidents reported in the news media.

Coalition casualties

As of May 5, 2004, the coalition death toll in this conflict was 870. Out of 870, 764 U.S., 59 UK, 17 Italian, 11 Spanish, 6 Bulgarian, 6 Ukrainian, 2 Thai, 2 Polish, 1 Danish, 1 Estonian and 1 Salvadoran have died. More than 80% of these died after Bush's announcement on May 1, 2003 that major combat was over.

Troops killed in action account for 640 of the coalition casualties, including 559 of the U.S. casualties.

According to the Pentagon, 4,133 U.S. soldiers had been wounded in action through May 3, 2004, of whom 2,546 were wounded severely enough that they could not return to action within 72 hours. An additional 444 U.S. troops were wounded in non-hostile circumstances through March 31, 2004. (Starting in April, 2004, the Pentagon is apparently reporting statistics only on soldiers wounded in action.)

Another source, though, reported that as of November 28, 2003, 9,675 troops had either been killed, wounded, injured, or become sick enough to need evacuation [1].

Coalition soldiers continue to come under attack in towns across Iraq.

Coalition casualties in the 2003-2004 conflict are now more than double those of the 1990-1991 Gulf War, and Iraqi casualties appear to have reached similar levels, though accurate counts of the latter are not available for either conflict. (In the Gulf War, coalition forces suffered around 378 deaths, and among the Iraqi military, tens of thousands were killed, along with thousands of civilians.)

Many non-combatants have been killed or wounded during the war as well, including at least 24 journalists and more than 150 UN, international aid personnel, and foreign contractors.

Finally, there is another notable category of casualties among citizens of coalition countries in this war: armed civilian security contractors in Iraq, many of them working for the U.S. Department of Defense. Although reporting on this situation has been quite sparse, one article [2] reports that at least 80 such "mercenaries" recruited from the U.S., Europe, and South Africa to work in Iraq for American companies were killed during a period of 8 days in early April 2004--more than the roughly 70 coalition troops who were killed in the same period.

Nightline controversy

Ted Koppel, host of ABC's Nightline, devoted his entire show on April 30, 2004, to reading the names of 721 of the 737 U.S. troops who had died thus far. (The show hadn't been able to confirm the remaining 16 names.)

Claiming that this would constitute a political statement, the Sinclair Broadcast Group, a media company whose executives have strongly supported President Bush, took the unusual action of barring the seven ABC-affiliated stations it controls from airing the show. This decision drew criticism from both supporters of the war, including Republican Senator John McCain, who denounced the move as "unpatriotic" and "a gross disservice to the public" and U.S. armed forces, and opponents of the war, including the liberal group MoveOn.org.

Iraqi civilian casualties

Estimates of the number and cause of Iraqi civilian deaths and injuries in the 2003-2004 conflict are less precise. The Iraq Body Count project, which compiles reported Iraqi civilian deaths (excluding deaths attributable to the Iraqi government) has a minimum estimate of 9,058 and a high of 10,914 as of May 5, 2004.

As for the major combat phase of the war from March-April 2003, Abu Dhabi TV reported on April 8, 2003 that Iraqi sources claimed 1,252 civilians had been killed and 5,103 had been wounded. In comparison, the Iraq Body Count Project estimated that through April 9, 2003, between 996 and 1,174 civilians had been killed.

Iraqi military casualties

There are no concrete numbers of dead Iraqi soldiers, although in late May 2003, one reporter for The Guardian estimated that between 13,500 and 45,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed by American and British troops during the six weeks of major combat [3]. (Following that period, the Iraqi military was effectively disbanded.)

A more recent, frequently quoted study published in October, 2003 [4] estimated that there were between 4,895 and 6,370 Iraqi military deaths, while explaining that to arrive at this number, they had "adjusted" the underlying incident reports from the field by reducing each count by anywhere from 20% to 60%, based on their own reliability assessments, in order to "control for casualty inflation -- a prevalent form of bias." Thus, the actual reports they were summarizing must have totalled between 6,119 and 15,925 deaths.

U.S. Central Command has given few figures on the subject, but officials did estimate that 2,000-3,000 Iraqi troops were killed in one day alone during a blitz into Baghdad on April 5, 2003, suggesting that a total in the tens of thousands is not unlikely for the entire 6-week war.

Coalition casualties

Nightline controversy

Iraqi civilian casualties

Iraqi military casualties

External links and references