Civilian Death Study Rates “Dirty War” in Iraq

More than 92,600 civilians were killed in armed violence in Iraq from 2003 to 2008, and U.S.-led coalition forces showed higher rates of indiscriminate killing of women and children than insurgents, a study has found.

British and Swiss researchers, using data from the human rights group Iraq Body Count (IBC), analyzed civilian deaths in Iraq from March 2003 to March 2008 and found that most killings were committed by unknown perpetrators, often from extrajudicial executions, suicide bombs, vehicle bombs, and mortars.

But according to a "dirty war index" devised by the researchers, the study found that the most indiscriminate effects on women and children in Iraq were from coalition forces.

For all types of weapons combined, and for small arms fire, coalition forces had a higher dirty war index rating than anti-coalition forces, the researchers explained.

Madelyn Hsiao-Rei Hicks of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, who led the study, stressed there was a high proportion of women and children among the civilians they killed.

"Some weapons are inherently more indiscriminate, such as large explosive weapons - whether they are suicide bombs or aerial bombs," she told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Hicks said the findings suggested that some of the types of weapons used by American-led forces during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and subsequently, were not very precise. "If you use heavy aerial bombing in a populated area, it is likely to have a more indiscriminate effect on women and children," she said.