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Ministry of Defence

Answer

Lembit O­pik: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many deaths in combat of (a) Iraqis and (b) British Forces occurred (i) during formal hostilities in Iraq and (ii) since the conclusion of formal hostilities in Iraq; and if he will make a statement. [224549] Mr. Hoon: Hostilities in Iraq concluded on 1 May 2003. Prior to that, 27 UK service personnel were killed in action. Since then, 22 UK service personnel have been killed in action. This does not include 10 UK service personnel missing believed killed following the C130 crash on 30 January 2005. The cause of that crash is still being investigated. There are no wholly reliable and comprehensive figures for Iraqis killed during or 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. The Ministry of Defence does not produce estimates of Iraqi military or civilian casualties. This is because UK military reporting is limited to the UK area of operations. But even within the UK area of operations reporting is limited to what troops see on the ground. So military reporting is incomplete and cannot provide the basis of Iraqi civilian or military casualty estimates.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

432 c1732W;432 c1727-8W; 224549

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Death Armed conflict Casualties Iraq Peacekeeping operations Iraq conflict

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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