American Forces Responsible for 532 of 18,610 Civilian Deaths in Iraq in 2007

The year 2007 was a year of opposites in Iraq. The beginning of the year was marked by bloodshed, and the end of the year was marked by relative calm. The beginning of the year saw an increase in American troops, while the end of the year will usher in a decrease in them. Where fears that the year's early sectarian in-fighting between Sunnis and Shi'ites, spurred on by the continued bombing of the Askariya Mosque, would blossom into a full-blown civil war, Sunnis have begun to reconcile themselves with their seeming mortal enemies, and instead turned their guns on a more common enemy in the al-Qaeda foreign fighters, taking on the name "Sunni Awakening Councils".

Many cannot decide whether 2007 should be called the worst year in Iraq - as the military casualties were among the highest - or one of the best years in Iraq, as in the second half of the year, casualties, death, and violence plummeted to early 2003 and 2004 levels. With the first half of the year shouldering the brunt of the "surge" portion of the Baghdad Security Plan, however, the year was forced to go through a grim black stage, followed by a peaceful, white stage.

According to the Associated Press, 18,610 civilians were killed in Iraq in 2007 - a number compiled in correlation with the Iraqi government using hospital and mortician reports. In 2006, among the worst years in Iraq both strategically and violently due to the largely "policing" role American forces were playing instead of the active, aggressive military role they played in 2003 and 2007, there were roughly 17,100 Iraqi civilian casualties - 256 of them caused by American forces.

The Web site Iraq Body Count lauds itself as among the most accurate reporting sites available for presenting the actual presentation of civilian casualties, putting the total at 80,000-87,000, falling far short of the claim by some anti-war critics that "600,000 Iraqi civilians have died since the beginning of the war in March 2003.

Iraq Body Count also puts the 2007 death figures at 22,000-24,000, though it is according to their charts that the 532 civilians were killed by American forces, which would bring the percentage from its high 2.8% to a low 2.2% of total civilian casualties. The site also maintains a full list of every cataloged casualty in Iraq - and therefore Associated Content Producer Chadd De Las Casas derived his numbers, with a potential of 100 plus or minus in error, from hand counting the deaths caused distinctly by U.S. forces, including air strikes and gunfire.

Some specific numbers were omitted that should not affect the overall percentage by any great degree - specifically casualties whose authenticity were in dispute, such as a lack of clarity if targets killed in a safe house were non-uniformed insurgents, or civilians.

When asked in a telephone interview, the Associated Press told AC Producer Chadd De Las Casas that they do not track civilian deaths caused specifically by Coalition forces - but maintained that their civilian death count was staunchly accurate.

Likewise, Eileen Lainez of the Department of Defense was also unable to comment, though to assist in the count, sent the AC Producer an advanced copy of the report prepared for Congress in December 2007, which includes quarterly reports.

Like the Department of Defense, the Multinational Force Iraq Command Center did not have the specific deaths caused by American forces on-hand, even after parsing the data with the Iraqi government, however Major Brad Leighton of the MNFI Press Desk assured Chadd De Las Casas in an email that publications were released every time a civilian was killed by Coalition forces - these publications are widely used by the Iraq Body Count website.

"I'm afraid we don't track civilian deaths caused by coalition forces," Major Leighton wrote in an e-mail, "just civilian deaths overall."

However, he assured that all civilian deaths are accidental, saying, "Whenever we do kill civilians (accidentally of course), we do issue a press release...I can tell you that the number killed by Coalition forces is far far fewer than those killed by extremists." This is consistent with the reports that American forces are responsible for only 2% of all civilian casualties in Iraq.

He assures, "We take every precaution we can to protect innocents while still pursuing the extremists."

When asked to speculate on why the civilian death count nearly doubled this year form last year's 256, he stated that it was for largely the same reason American troop deaths are up, crediting the new rules of engagement and increased levels of operations against insurgents. Compared to 2006's relatively passive strategy, American soldiers in Iraq in 2007 were more aggressive in hunting down extremists both in Baghdad and in surrounding areas.

"Of course, the 'surge' is also one of the reasons we are seeing less attacks and less civilian casualties now," he told Associated Content Producer Chadd De Las Casas in an email interview.

Of the 532 collateral deaths by American forces, the majority of those were caused by air strikes - roughly 60%. When asked why the large quantity of air strike related deaths compared to infantry related deaths, where many people assume that the majority of civilian casualties occur, he said,

"I'd say those, the precision guided munitions dropped by our aircraft are the most accurate and sophisticated such weapons on the earth. However, they are still very powerful weapons. We use them when only necessary."

He was asked by the AC Producer what steps American forces took to avoid civilian casualties - to which he responded that he cannot go into too much detail, referring to it as "tactics, techniques, and procedures" which he was not allowed to go into, but he maintains that the majority of civilians killed by air strikes were done so because they did not know they were in the area. Major Leighton maintains that the insurgents intentionally shield themselves behind civilians, which is consistent with Taliban strategy in Afghanistan.

He describes it conclusively as, "We try to minimize innocent deaths. The enemy tries to maximize innocent lives lost."

Indeed, the majority of civilian deaths in Iraq were not only not caused by American forces, but were either caused directly by insurgent activity such as IEDs, or even through abduction and bizarre forms of torture and mutilation, mass executions, or specific targeting, in stark contrast to American forces.

Of the 532 civilians killed by American forces, Major Leighton insists that the U.S. absolutely regrets the innocent loss of life, though he remains optimistic about the way the so called "surge" has allowed for both a drop in attacks on civilians, and a need for attacks that could harm civilians.

Sources:

-Iraq Body Count
-Telephone Interview With the Associated Press
-Telephone Interview With Eileen Lainez, Department of Defense Press Office
-Email Interview With Major Brad Leighton, Multinational Force Iraq CentCom Press Desk
-Department of Defense Progress Report Before Congress