Iraq Death Toll Over 100,000

RINF NEWS

The civilian death toll in Iraq is now over 100,000 as the US military confirm that at least 4,313 servicemen and women have been killed since 2003.

The British military has reported 179 deaths.

As of today the global figures for military deaths in Iraq look like this:

Italy, 33
Ukraine, 18
Poland, 21
Bulgaria, 13
Spain, 11
Denmark, 7
El Salvador, five
Slovakia, four
Latvia, 3 
Georgia, 3
Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand and Romania, 2 each
Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and South Korea, 1 death each

What is often less reported are the civilian deaths which include many families and children. A high civilian death rate comes as a result of aerial bombs and mortar fire.

Dr Madelyn Hicks of King’s College London said: “It seems clear … to protect civilians from indiscriminate harm, as required by international humanitarian law (including the Geneva Conventions), military and civilian policies should prohibit aerial bombing in civilian areas unless it can be demonstrated — by monitoring of civilian casualties, for example — that civilians are being protected.

“Policymakers, war strategists of all persuasions, and the groups and societies that support them bear moral and legal responsibility for the effects that particular combat tactics have on civilians — including the weapons used near and among them.”