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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Answer

Mr. Donaldson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his latest estimate is of the number of Iraqi civilians killed in the conflict since coalition forces entered Iraq; and what estimate he has made of the number of Iraqi civilians killed by the regime of Saddam Hussein. [223479] Mr. Mullin: [holding answer 22 March 2005]: There are no wholly reliable and comprehensive figures for Iraqi civilians killed since military operations began in March 2003. The Iraqi Minister of Health's most recently released figures, based on records from some 180 hospitals, show that between 5 April 2004, when figures began to be collated, and 1 March 2005, 6,265 Iraqis were killed. The Ministry of Health points out that this figure includes all Iraqis, including civilians, Iraqi Security Forces and insurgents, killed as a result of violence. On 22 July 2003 the United Nations Secretary- General reported to the Security Council that it was estimated that over the past three decades at least 290,000 Iraqis had disappeared in Iraq. The Iraqi Bureau of Missing Persons has registered over 1.3 million missing Iraqis. Some 270 mass graves have so far been reported from that period.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

432 c886-7W; 223479

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Death Armed conflict Casualties Civilians Iraq Peacekeeping operations Iraq conflict

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk