700 Iraqis killed this month, says US general
Around 70 US-led coalition troops and 700 Iraqi insurgents have been killed in fighting across Iraq since April 1, but there is no authoritative figure on Iraqi civilian deaths, US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said today.
Kimmitt’s comments were the first full casualty statistics released by the military since a bloody uprising by a radical Shiite militia started April 4 and US forces began their siege against Sunni insurgents in Fallujah a day later.
“The coalition casualties since April 1 run about 70 personnel … The casualty figures we have received from the enemy are somewhere about 10 times that amount, what we’ve inflicted on the enemy,” Kimmitt told a Baghdad press conference.
“In terms of civilian casualties, there is no reliable, authoritative figure out there. We would ask the Ministry of Health, once Iraqi control … is allowed back in Fallujah, they can get a fair, honest and credible figure and not one that is somehow filtered through some of the local propaganda machines,” he said.
Based on individual statements issued by the military, 62 US marines and soldiers and at least two non-US coalition soldiers have been killed since April 4.
Around 880 Iraqis have been killed, based on statements by Iraqi hospital officials, US military statements and Iraqi police.
Besides casualties in Fallujah, that number includes an unknown number of Iraqi fighters, members of Iraqi security forces and civilians killed in fights between insurgents and coalition soldiers in various parts of the country.
The number includes more than 600 Iraqi dead in Fallujah reported by the head of the city’s hospital, Rafie al-Issawi, yesterday.
Most of the dead were civilians, he said.
