Casualties in Iraq: The Human Cost of Occupation

July 2nd, 2023 - by Edited by Margaret Griffis / Antiwar.com
Casualties in Iraq:
The Human Cost of Occupation
Edited by Margaret Griffis / Antiwar.com
American Military Casualties in Iraq 
Date Total In Combat
American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4497 3529
Since “Mission Accomplished” (5/1/03) (the list) 4351 3425
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3631 2900
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 260 128
Since Operation New Dawn: 66 39
American Wounded Official Estimated
Total Wounded: 32021 Over 100000
Page last updated 07/19/16 9:22 am EDT 
Put a Casualty Counter on Your Website
U.S. Wounded 
Daily DoD Casualty Release
320,000 Vets Have Brain Injuries
War Veterans’ Concussions Are Often Overlooked
How Many Servicemembers Were Wounded?
18 Vet Suicides Per Day?
Iraqi Casualties
Others
Other Coalition Troops – Iraq 321
US Military Deaths – Afghanistan 2382
Other Military Deaths – Afghanistan 1127
Contractor Employee Deaths – Iraq 1,487
Journalists – Iraq 348
Academics Killed – Iraq 448
Sources: DoD, MNF, and iCasualties.org
The Faces The List  Sources American Casualties Iraqi Casualties Contact

U.S. lacks mechanism to accurately
track troops wounded in Iraq

Also see The Missing Wounded.

American Count 
Dates and sources of Americans killed in Iraq since 5/1/03 are documented in this file. Admittedly the file is incomplete, for the Department of Defense does not maintain old records. All data was compiled from https://www.defense.gov. If something is amiss in the data collection, please contact Margaret Griffis.

Iraqi Civilian Count
We maintain a daily count based on news reports. It is not intended to be complete. There is no agency that keeps track of accurate numbers of Iraqis killed. JustForeignPolicy maintained a running estimate based on the Lancet study with the rate of increase derived from the Iraq Body Count. When that project was ended in 2011, the count was 1.45 million Iraqi deaths.

Comparing Civilian Casualty Studies
Robert Naiman of Just Foreign Policy explains the similarities between the Lancet and the the Orb estimates. Numbers from the Iraq Body Count site and the study published in the Lancet are compared at OpenDemocracy.net. The BBC published an article, which includes a response from IBC, that criticizes the large Lancet figures. Middle East expert Juan Cole also gives his opinion on the Lancet study here.
Sources and Links
US Military Deaths by Month from Icasualties.org
Faces of the Fallen Department of Defense Central Command
JustForeignPolicy Icasualties.org Count BBC Figures
Juan Cole Journalist Deaths in Iraq Cost of War