Iraq death toll for 2010 runs to 4,000

NEARLY 4,000 Iraqi civilians, soldiers and police died in violent attacks in 2010, according to a report released by website Iraq Body Count yesterday.

Although this would make the toll for this year the lowest since the 2003 US invasion and occupation, the compilers of the count suggest that the annual numbers of fatalities could stabilise.

This year’s toll of 3,976 is about 15 per cent lower than the 2009 count of 4,680. But the 2010 data “showed the smallest year-on-year reduction . . . since violence began to reduce from late 2007 onwards . . . while any reduction in the violence rate is welcome, the slowdown in reductions is indicative of an impassible minimum that may have been reached”, say the authors of the report.

They say “a persistent low-level conflict” could “continue to kill civilians at a similar rate for years to come”. They cited as a “hopeful sign” the fact that there was no spike in violence after the withdrawal of US combat troops at the end of August, but also spoke of the “sheer relentlessness” of Iraq’s security crisis.

At the height of sectarian bloodletting in 2006 and 2007, fatalities were 27,850 and 24,677. Deaths since March 2003 range between 99,285 and 108,398.

The website, a volunteer organisation based in Britain, say the figures are based on reliable non-governmental information and media reports of deaths. Critics have noted that as many as half of fatalities are not reported either to the authorities or in the media. Thus, the website data are regarded as too conservative.

The release by WikiLeaks of its Iraq War Logs enabled Iraq Body Count to revise its figures upwards by adding 15,000 deaths, including 3,000 in the Iraqi police.