UnKnown News

At least 753,399 people have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq since the U.S. and coalition attacks, based on lowest credible estimates.

Most recent update: September 11, 2009.       This page is updated about once monthly.
About 251 times as many people have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq than in the ghastly attacks of September 11, 2001. More than 108 times as many people have been killed in these wars and occupations than in all terrorist attacks in the world from 1993-2004. The 2004 report showed terrorism at an all-time high, and after numerous experts suggested that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were fueling the increase, subsequent reports have remained classified.

Sources and methodology       Notes about varying casualty counts cited elsewhere

#   Casualties in Afghanistan:

Afghan troops killed  [1]

11,152

Afghan troops seriously injured  [2]

33,456

Afghan civilians killed  [3]

7,589

Afghan civilians seriously injured  [4]

13,660

U.S. troops killed  [5]

746

U.S. troops seriously injured  [6]

2,238

Other coalition troops killed  [7]

551

Other coalition troops seriously injured  [8]

1,653

Contractors killed  [9]

75

Contractors seriously injured  [10]

2,428

Journalists killed  [11]

6

Journalists seriously injured  [12]

unknown

Total killed in Afghanistan:

20,119

Total injured in Afghanistan:

53,435

#   Casualties in Iraq:

Iraqi troops killed  [13]

30,000

Iraqi troops seriously injured  [14]

90,000

Iraqi civilians killed  [15]

697,523

Iraqi civilians seriously injured  [16]

1,255,541

U.S. troops killed  [17]

4,343

U.S. troops seriously injured  [18]

31,156

Other coalition troops killed  [19]

318

Other coalition troops seriously injured  [20]

10,821

Contractors killed  [21]

933

Contractors seriously injured  [22]

10,569

Journalists killed  [23]

163

Journalists seriously injured  [24]

unknown

Total killed in Iraq:

733,280

Total injured in Iraq:

1,398,087

#   Sources and methodology:

U.S. and coalition authorities rarely provide any public estimates of Afghan or Iraqi troop or civilian casualties or injuries. In this absence of official data, we present the latest and lowest credible estimates we've found. Where a range is estimated (for example, 2,500-4,000), the lower figure is always cited.

[1]   Afghan troops killed:  Based on estimate and tracking by Mark Herold, Ph.D at the University of New Hampshire, as detailed at his website. For casualties since Dr. Herold's last update in July 2004, we've made a crude guess based on the average of 45 monthly deaths Dr. Herold recorded among Afghan military during 2004's first seven months. Dr. Herold's count is 8,587, and our extrapolation adds another 2,565 deaths, from the end of Dr. Herold's tally through the end of April 2009.

[2]   Afghan troops seriously injured:  Posted number reflects our estimate, using a conservative, historically-based ratio of 3:1 (serious injuries to fatalities) for troops during wartime.

[3]   Afghan civilians killed:  Based on estimate and tracking by Dr. Herold, as detailed at his website. For casualties since Dr. Herold's last update in July 2004, we've made a crude guess based on the average of 72 monthly deaths Dr. Herold recorded among Afghan civilians (with deaths among Taliban and Taliban affiliates included in Afghan civilian casualties) during 2004's first seven months. Dr. Herold's count is 3,485, and our extrapolation adds another 4,104 deaths, from the end of Dr. Herold's tally through the end of April 2009.

[4]   Afghan civilians seriously injured:  Posted number reflects our estimate, using a conservative, historically-based ratio of 1.8:1 (serious injuries to fatalities) for civilians during wartime.

[5]   U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan:  US military deaths in Afghanistan are announced by US Department of Defense and CENTCOM, and tallied at Wikipedia, which notes that "the American figure is for deaths 'In and Around Afghanistan' which, as defined by the U.S. Department of Defense, includes some deaths in Pakistan and Uzbekistan, the death of a DoD civilian employee, and the deaths of four CIA operatives."

[6]   U.S. troops seriously injured in Afghanistan:  To the best of our knowledge, this data is not publicly tracked (if you know a reliable source for this information, please let us know). Posted number reflects our estimate, using a conservative, historically-based ratio of 3:1 (serious injuries to fatalities) for troops.

[7]   Other coalition troops killed in Afghanistan:  Coalition military deaths in Afghanistan are announced by US Department of Defense and CENTCOM, and tallied at Wikipedia.

[8]   Other coalition troops seriously injured in Afghanistan:  To the best of our knowledge, this data is not publicly tracked (if you know a reliable source for this information, please let us know). Posted number reflects our estimate, using a conservative, historically-based ratio of 3:1 (serious injuries to fatalities) for troops.

[9]   Contractors killed in Afghanistan:  Based on this July 2007 Reuters article, which cites US Department of Labor statistics obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The article reports that 75 private contractors had been killed in Afghanistan from the beginning of hostilities in 2001 through July 2007.

[10]   Contractors seriously injured in Afghanistan:  Based on the same article, 2,428 private contractors had been seriously wounded in Afghanistan from the beginning of hostilities in 2001 through July 2007.

[11]   Journalists killed in Afghanistan:  Based on numbers tracked by Wikipedia.

[12]   Journalists seriously injured in Afghanistan:  To the best of our knowledge, this data is not publicly tracked (if you know a reliable source for this information, please let us know).

[13]   Iraqi troops killed:  Based on an estimate of 30,000 deaths, offered by US Gen. Tommy Franks, cited by the Washington Post on Oct. 23, 2003. No estimate has been made publicly since that time.

[14]   Iraqi troops seriously injured:  Posted number reflects our estimate, using a conservative, historically-based ratio of 3:1 (serious injuries to fatalities) for troops during wartime.

[15]   Iraqi civilians killed:  Based on this study [pdf], published in the British medical journal The Lancet in October 2006. The study concluded that at least 392,979 Iraqi civilians had been killed in the occupation, in addition to deaths expected from Iraq's normal death rate, through July 2006. The study's mid-point estimate was 654,965, and its high estimate was 942,636. U.S. authorities, including President Bush himself, have loudly complained that the study is based on "flawed methodology" and "pretty well discredited," but as often happens when Bush speaks, that's simply untrue. The study was conducted by Johns Hopkins University, and used standard, widely accepted, peer-reviewed scientific methodology. Explained very briefly, Iraqi respondants in numerous randomly selected locations were asked about recent deaths in their households, and family members were able to show a death certificate to document 80% of the deaths they described. Results from these interviews were extrapolated nationwide, the same way political opinion polls extrapolate a few hundred interviews to reflect nationwide opinions. It's the same method used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to estimate deaths from disease outbreak anywhere in the world, the same method routinely trusted by the U.S. and U.K. when counting deaths from warfare, civil unrest, or other situations anywhere in the world. From the study's lowest estimate of 392,979 deaths occurring over the first 40 months of occupation, we have extended this rate of civilian deaths (9,824 deaths per month) over subsequent months of the occupation since the study was published.

[16]   Iraqi civilians seriously injured:  Posted number reflects our estimate, using a conservative, historically-based ratio of 1.8:1 (serious injuries to fatalities) for civilians during wartime.

[17]   U.S. troops killed in Iraq:  Based on numbers announced by US Department of Defense and CENTCOM, and tracked by the good folks at Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.

[18]   U.S. troops seriously injured in Iraq:  Based on numbers announced by US Department of Defense and CENTCOM, and tracked by the good folks at Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. (According to this article by Salon reporter Mark Benjamin, an additional 25,289 service members had been evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan for injuries or illnesses, but not included in the official numbers and not included in the numbers presented on this page.)

[19]   Other coalition troops killed in Iraq:  Based on numbers announced by US Department of Defense and CENTCOM, and tracked by the good folks at Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.

[20]   Other coalition troops seriously injured in Iraq:  To the best of our knowledge, this data is not publicly tracked (if you know a reliable source for this information, please let us know). Posted number reflects our estimate, assuming the same injury to death ratio suffered by American troops in the same battlefield.

[21]   Contractors killed in Iraq:  Based on this July 2007 Reuters article, which cites US Department of Labor statistics obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The article reports that 933 private contractors had been killed in Iraq from the beginning of hostilities in 2001 through July 2007.

[22]   Contractors seriously injured in Iraq:  Based on the same article, 10,569 private contractors had been seriously wounded in Iraq from the beginning of hostilities in 2001 through July 2007.

[23]   Journalists killed in Iraq:  Deaths tracked by Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.

[24]   Journalists seriously injured in Iraq:  To the best of our knowledge, this data is not publicly tracked (if you know a reliable source for this information, please let us know).


#   Notes about varying casualty counts cited elsewhere:

A much lower number •    From the start of the Iraq invasion and occupation, an organization called Iraq Body Count (IBC) has offered its tallies of the announced civilian death toll in Iraq. Offering their JavaScript box to other websites, the IBC tallies quickly became ubiquitous on the web, and IBC's numbers have come to be seen as "the responsible standard" in death counts. But IBC's methodology delivers numbers that are implausibly low. As the cornerstone of its work, IBC counts only Iraq civilian deaths that are reported in newspapers or on television. In a nation ravaged daily by violence, it seems unlikely that reports of every man, woman, and child killed -- or even most Iraqi deaths -- would be mentioned in that nation's media. Furthermore, as IBC states,   "We have not made use of Arabic or other non English language sources, except where these have been published in English. ... It is possible that our count has excluded some victims as a result."   "It is Possible..."? The principle languages of Iraq are Arabic, Kurdish, Assyrian, and Armenian. English is a fairly common second language in Iraq, but few of that nation's newspapers or newscasts are in English, the only language IBC is reading. Thus it's impossible to imagine that many casualties are not being excluded. Also, IBC's methodology ignores even English-language media reports of Iraqi civilians' deaths, unless matching reports of the same casualties are published by at least "two independent [English-language] agencies." Iraq Body Count's methodology undoubtedly leaves many dead Iraqis' bodies un-counted. Its number is lower than the estimates we've seen from any other organization, except for the optimistic reports from Iraq's Ministry of Health. And the people behind Iraq Body Count acknowledge that their count leaves many of the dead un-counted. As IBC explains at their website:   "What we are attempting to provide is a credible compilation of civilian deaths that have been reported by recognized sources. Our maximum therefore refers to reported deaths — which can only be a sample of true deaths [if] one assumes that every civilian death has been reported. It is likely that many if not most civilian casualties will go unreported by the media. That is the sad nature of war."   So it's dead wrong to present IBC's "maximum civilian deaths" as an accurate casualty count. But for years IBC's undercount has been widely, nearly universally cited by media and policy-makers, and IBC has done nothing to stop the misleading mis-use of its work. Iraq Body Count's "body count" is just plain false -- they're not counting anywhere near all the bodies, and they know it. Informed and honest observers should not accept IBC's numbers as even approaching a complete or credible count of Iraqi civilians killed.

A much higher number •    Many readers have cited this popular article at TBRNews. It gives voice to a theory we've heard whispered since even before the attack on Iraq; in its earliest versions, the theory was that many more American soldiers had been killed in Afghanistan than the Pentagon and media had reported. Now it's about American casualties from Iraq. In a nutshell, the theory is that the toll of American military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan includes only military deaths where the moment of death is in Iraq or Afghanistan -- but ignores the deaths of American service members injured in Iraq or Afghanistan and evacuated out of country, who subsequently die in military hospitals elsewhere. Well, we don't buy it. First and most pertinent, the US Department of Defense has announced numerous deaths of American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines at hospitals in Landstuhl, Germany, or at hospitals in Kuwait or in America, from injuries sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read for yourself, press releases announcing the sad deaths of David M. Kirchhoff, William D. Chaney, Bradley C. Fox, Tyler D. Prewitt. If you simply go through the Pentagon press releases, you'll find numerous other deaths outside Iraq and Afghanistan, included in the count of military casualties. There could be several, or even several dozen American soldiers who have been killed in these wars but are not on the official DoD tally, due to oversight, errors, secrecy about their missions, or even an official policy that discounts certain American military deaths. But the number can't be in the hundreds, and certainly can't be in the thousands -- because American military deaths are never an abstract number. Behind every number in the official DoD tally of Americans killed, there's an American name remembered, a American life sadly cut short, and grieving American friends and family who will never forget the loved one lost. When Americans visit the Vietnam Memorial, they look for their dead uncle's name, their father, their friends, because they knew people who died in that war. If their names weren't there -- as has happened with a small number of overlooked American deaths from the Vietnam war -- the friends and families complain, and the missing names are added. If thousands of American dead from these Middle East wars had been forgotten, not included in the ongoing tally of grief, there would be loud, angry, headline-making protests from the parents, wives, husbands, siblings, and friends of the dead, demanding that their sacrifice be honored and remembered. Where are these people, understandably angry that their loved ones' deaths have been ignored? It defies credibility to believe that huge numbers of American dead have been kept off the books, when no American's friends and family have made a ruckus. Until we hear from the neighbors and loved ones of the dead, we don't believe there's a cover-up. We're certain that TBRNews has their heart in the right place, but we're also certain they're wrong.

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