According to Iraqi Body Count, an independent organization that compiles reports of Iraqi civilians killed or wounded during the war in Iraq, an estimated 27,000 to 30,400 Iraqi civilians have been killed between March 2003 and March 2005. Another 42,500 Iraqi civilians have been wounded in that same time period.

The Iraqi Body Count report, known as “A Dossier on Civilian Casualties in Iraq, 2003-2005,” is the first account of all Iraqi civilian casualties during the war. The figures came from more than 10,000 media reports as well as records from medics and morticians in Iraq. Of the Iraqi civilian deaths, about 20 percent were women and children, and about half of all the deaths were in Baghdad. Air strikes caused nearly two thirds of all civilian deaths. More than a third of the deaths (37 percent) were attributed to U.S.-led coalition forces and another third (36 percent) came from post-invasion criminal violence. For more information on the report, go to www.iraqbodycount.net.

Meanwhile, the Lancet Study, conducted by a team of researchers who interviewed randomly sampled households across Iraq with a methodology similar to that used by the U.S. Census, claims more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in the first 18 months of the war alone.

Deaths have come as a result of roadside bombs, rockets, small arms fire, and suicide bombers. One of the deadliest weapons is the improvised explosive device, or IED. IED’s are homemade bombs set off as lane mines, launched, or planted in suicide bomber attacks. The number of fatal IED attacks has surged this year with seven of the eight deadliest months for U.S. troops coming at the end of this year, according to the Department of Defense.

All 50 states in the U.S. have lost soldiers in the Iraq war — including 44 soldiers from North Carolina. California has lost more than any other state — 220 soldiers. Other U.S. soldiers killed in the war have come from Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Micronesia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands. Still another 200 soldiers from Great Britain and other nations from around the world have been killed in the Iraq war.

War casualties have been escalating at the end of this year, according to figures from the Department of Defense. Last month was the fourth deadliest month for U.S. troops — 96 soldiers killed — since the war in Iraq began. An additional 602 U.S. soldiers were wounded in action — the sixth highest monthly total of wounded soldiers since the war started. With an average of 3.4 soldiers killed every day this month, November 2005 is already the sixth deadliest month on record for U.S. casualties.

In addition to Iraqi civilians and soldiers from the U.S. and coalition forces, at least 59 journalists and 284 contractors from all over the world have been killed or died while working in Iraq, according the Department of Defense.

For additional information on U.S. and coalition soldiers, journalists, and contractors killed or wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom, go to the website http://icasualties.org/oif/.