Iraqi Civilian Casualties recruit for the insurgents:
An exclusive report from Knight Ridder's Washington office, which has gained much renown for this sort of thing in the past year, revealed Saturday that U.S. and multinational forces and Iraqi police are killing twice as many Iraqis, most of them civilians, as attacks by insurgents.
The statistics were compiled by the Iraqi Health Ministry and obtained exclusively by Knight Ridder.
Iraqi officials said about two-thirds of the Iraqi deaths were caused by the U.S. side and police; the remaining third died from insurgent attacks.
Although most of the dead are believed to be civilians, the data include an unknown number of police and Iraqi national guardsmen. Many Iraqi deaths, however, are never reported. Charts show the number of casualties surging in August and September.
According to the ministry, the interim Iraqi government recorded 3,487 Iraqi deaths in 15 of the country's 18 provinces from April 5 (when the ministry began compiling the data) until Sept. 19. Of those, 328 were women and children under 12. Another 13,720 Iraqis were injured, the ministry said.
"Iraqi officials said the statistics proved that U.S. airstrikes intended for insurgents also were killing large numbers of innocent civilians," wrote KR's Nancy A. Youssef. "Some say these casualties are undermining popular acceptance of the American-backed interim government.
"That suggests that more aggressive U.S. military operations, which the Bush administration has said are being planned to clear the way for nationwide elections scheduled for January, could backfire and strengthen the insurgency."
Conversely:
Dozens of children killed in Baghdad car bombings in cap to bloody SeptemberAt least 49 people were killed, dozens of them children, in a series of devastating car bombs that left a trail of carnage in Baghdad and northern Iraq on Thursday, medics and the US military said.
The attacks were unleashed as another 10 hostages, including two Indonesian women, were reported kidnapped, while Britain and France scrambled to try to secure the release of their nationals held hostage by Islamic militants.
The bloodiest attack in Iraq was a twin car bombing at the site of a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new water pumping station in the poor Al-Amel neighbourhood of southwest Baghdad.
A crowd of curious children had gathered to watch the ceremony when the bombs went off, sending clouds of black smoke billowing into the air.
A bloodied witness said he helped carry out 32 bodies of children from the rubble.
There were scenes of hysteria and chaos at Baghdad's Yarmuk hospital where doctors said they received 41 bodies from the bombings.
"This is my son Ahmed, This is my son Ahmed," howled one man.
Iraq's Health Minister Alaadin Sahab Adwan later put the toll from the attacks at 42, with only five of them adults.
The US military said 10 US soldiers were also wounded in the attack and that a third car bomb went off in the area at the same time near an Iraqi national guard checkpoint.
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