Perilous Times
Suicide bombers in Iraq have killed 12,000 civilians and 200
coalition soldiers since war began, study finds
* The Guardian, Friday 2 September 2011
Suicide bombers in Iraq have killed at least 12,000 civilians and
200 coalition soldiers, according to a study.
The research paper, by Dr Madelyn Hsiao-Rei Hicks of King's
College London, the London-based Iraq Body Count and others,
describes suicide bombs in Iraq as "a major public health
problem", killing significantly more civilians than soldiers. It
is published as part of a Lancet series on the health consequences
of 9/11.
Among the reasons for the high civilian death toll is the
difficulty of getting victims to hospital quickly enough for
emergency treatment. The study finds children are more likely to
die than adults if they are injured in a suicide bombing.
Using data amassed by the Iraq Body Count, which collects verified
reports of deaths and injuries, as well as other data on military
deaths, the authors say more than 30,000 Iraqi civilians were
injured by suicide bombs between 20 March 20 2003 and 31 December
2010, and 12,284 Iraqi civilians were killed in more than 1,000
suicide bombings. These amounted to 10% of civilian deaths and 25%
of civilian injuries from armed violence in that period, they say.
About a third of the Iraqi fatalities (3,963) were demographically
identifiable. Of those, 75% were men, 11% were women and 14% were
children. An Iraqi child died in at least 159 (16%) of the 1,003
suicide bombings and a woman or child in at least 211 (21%).
In the same period, 200 coalition soldiers were killed in suicide
attacks. Of those, 175 were from the
US in 76 attacks, 16 were Italian in one attack, three were
British in one bombing and four Bulgarians and two Thai soldiers
died in one incident.
"Suicide bombers in Iraq use suicide bombs strategically as
cost-effective, precise, highly destructive weapons," say the
authors. The Iraqi civilian population suffers substantially
because it is "a primary chosen target of suicide bombers and
those who deploy them".