Iraq war death toll 1,62,000: NGO---The Pioneer--3.1.2012

Baghdad:Around 1,62,000 people, almost 80 per cent of them civilians, were killed in Iraq from the start  f the 2003 US-led invasion up to last month’s withdrawal of American forces, a British NGO said on  onday. Iraq Body Count (IBC) warned that, contrary to apparent trends in figures released by the Iraqi  overnment, the level of violence has  changed little from mid-2009, though attacks are markedly down  rom when the country was in the throes of sectarian war in 2006 and 2007. In all, the non- overnmental  rganisation said an estimated 1,62,000 people were killed in Iraq in the nearly nine years of conflict. It  aid around 79 per cent of the fatalities were civilians, while the remainder included US soldiers, Iraqi  ecurity forces, and insurgents. “The violence peaked in late 2006 but was sustained at high levels until  he second half of 2008 — nearly 90 per cent of the deaths occurred by 2009,” IBC said in a statement. But it warned that “there has now been no noticeable downward trend (in civilian deaths) since mid- 009.” “Recent trends indicate a persistent low-level conflict in Iraq that will continue to kill civilians at a  imilar rate for years to come. While these data indicate no improvement, time will tell whether the withdrawal of US forces will have an effect on casualty levels.” US troops, who at their peak numbered  early 1,70,000 on as many as 505  bases in Iraq, completed their withdrawal from the country on  ecember 18 and Prime  Minister Nuri al-Maliki dubbed on Saturday to be “Iraq Day”, marking when the  ilateral pact allowing American forces to stay expired. IBC said it had recorded more than 1,14,000  ivilian deaths in Iraq since the invasion, and said the addition of figures from US military logs published  y  histleblower website WikiLeaks, as well as officially recorded US and Iraqi security deaths and insurgent tolls, put the overall figure at 1,62,000. The worst non-civilian group affected was the Iraqi police, with  ,019 reported deaths, and Baghdad was the most dangerous city in the country, with half of the  ecorded deaths, equating to 2.5 times the national average. At least 3,911 victims were children, IBC said. A total of 4,474 US soldiers died in Iraq, as well. The NGO’s overall toll differed markedly from that  ublished by the Iraqi Government, which said yesterday that 2,645 people were killed in violence in  2011,  ompared to IBC’s toll of 4,063. Iraqi Government figures, unlike IBC data, indicate attacks decreased significantly last year from 2010, when  3 , 6 0 5  p e opl e  were  k i l l ed.  The Government’s  onthly data, which does not go back to 2003, puts the death toll since the beginning of 2007 at 34,485.