Iraq violence: Facts and figures

Gathering reliable data on the current bloodshed in Iraq is difficult, but the available figures help build up a picture of the complex mixture of insurgent attacks and sectarian killings.

CASUALTIES

DEATHS SINCE MAR 2003 Iraqi civilians: Estimates from 49,000 (Iraq Body Count) and 655,000 (Lancet, 2006) Iraqi security forces*: 5,556 US military: 2,812 UK military: 120 Other coalition military: 119 Journalists: 77 *Since June 2003 Source: Brookings Institution Iraq war dead figures

Death tolls - both military and civilian - since the fall of Saddam Hussein have far outstripped those during the initial period of US-led military action.

Numbers of civilian casualties are highly controversial and not recorded by the US or UK military.

INSURGENT ATTACKS

Insurgent attacks have become part of daily life in some sections of Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The last few months have exceeded the peaks of violence ahead of national elections in January 2005 and the referendum on the constitution in October 2005.

Although about 80% of insurgent attacks are targeted against coalition forces, the Iraqi population suffers about 80% of all casualties, according to US officials in late 2005.

MAJOR ATTACKS IN IRAQ 23 Nov 06 - 200 dead - Five car bombs and mortar attacks in Sadr City, Baghdad 13 Aug 06 - 57 dead Four-storey building destroyed in blast in Zafaraniya district. 18 July 06 - 53 dead Car bomb in southern city of Kufa near Shia shrine 1 July 06 - 66 killed Car bomb in Sadr City, Baghdad 7 April 2006 - 85 dead Triple suicide bombing at Shia Buratha mosque 5 Jan 06 - 110 dead Suicide bombers hit Karbala shrine and police recruiting station in Ramadi 18 Nov 05 - 80 dead Multiple bombings in Baghdad and two Khanaqin mosques 14 Sept 05 - 182 dead Suicide car bomber targets Baghdad labourers in worst of a series of bombs 16 Aug 05 - 90 dead Suicide bomber detonates fuel tanker in Musayyib 28 Feb 05 - 114 dead Suicide car bomb hits government jobseekers in Hilla 24 June 04 - 100 dead Co-ordinated blasts in Mosul and other cities 2 March 04 - 140 dead Suicide bombers attack Shia festival at Karbala and Baghdad 1 Feb 04 - 105 dead Twin attacks on Kurdish parties' offices in Irbil 28 Aug 03 - 85 dead Car bomb at Najaf shrine targets senior Shia cleric

From late 2004, the number of attacks on Iraqi security personnel increased as the army and police force grew and became more active.

The figures also show a significant increase in attacks on civilians in the months following the bombing of a key Shia mosque in Samarra in February 2006, which unleashed new levels of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shias.

Many of the insurgent attacks attributed to foreign jihadis have a sectarian element in that they have targeted Shias with the aim of provoking wider violence between Iraq's religious communities.

Insurgent attacks have become more sophisticated. The numbers of car bombs, suicide car bombs and roadside bombs all doubled from 2004 to 2005. The number of multiple-fatality bombings has increased from less than 20 a month in 2004 to a peak of 57 in June 2006.

The improvised explosive device has become the insurgents' weapon of choice, and was responsible for more than half of all US deaths in the first half of 2006.

Iraqi civilian targets have frequently been overtly Shia targets, such as Shia mosques, and targets related to the Iraqi government such as queues of potential police recruits.

INSURGENT NUMBERS

Estimates of the size of the insurgency vary considerably, partly due to varying definitions of the term "insurgent".

According to figures collated by Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, from autumn 2003 US officials put the total number of insurgents at 5,000, until late 2004 when they raised their estimates to between 12,000 and 16,000.

By 2006, US military estimates ranged from 8,000 to 20,000, although Iraqi intelligence officials have issued figures as high as 40,000 fighters, plus another 160,000 supporters.

The majority of insurgents are thought to be Iraqi and Sunni. The proportion of foreign fighters in the insurgency is widely considered to be less than 10%, although the US military said in May 2006 that 90% of suicide bombers used by Iraq's former al-Qaeda leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, were from outside Iraq.

SECTARIAN ATTACKS

LARGE-SCALE KILLINGS 12 July 06 - 23 killed Kidnapped from bus station in Muqdadiya 9 July 06 - 40 killed Mainly Sunnis, dragged from cars by Shia gunmen, Baghdad 26 March 06 - 30 bodies Most decapitated, found near Baquba 14 March 06 - 29 bodies Found bound, tortured and shot in south-east Baghdad 23 Feb 06 - 47 killed Workers dragged from vehicles in Nahrawan, Baghdad 22 Jan 06 - 23 bodies Police volunteers shot dead, found north of Baghdad 7 Oct 05 - 22 bodies Found handcuffed and shot near the town of Badra 25 Aug 05 - 36 bodies Found blindfolded, handcuffed and executed, near Badra

Since early 2005, gruesome finds of groups of corpses, often showing signs of execution or torture, have been becoming increasingly common.

Such discoveries have become more frequent and high profile since the outbreak of a wave of sectarian violence which followed the Samarra mosque bombing.

A large proportion of these killings can be identified as sectarian because of the style of killing, the identities of the victims or the context of the deaths.

BAGHDAD MORTUARY TOLL The UN says "most" bodies processed in recent months have had gunshot wounds The morgue processed about 150 bodies a month in 2002 (Source: A Cordesman)

However, no available figures differentiate between sectarian killings and crime deaths in a country where kidnapping, extortion and tribal feuds are rife.

The numbers of bodies processed by Baghdad morgue, which deals only with those who died violent or suspicious deaths, are a widely-used guide.

Correspondents say the actual toll may be much higher as many bodies are not taken to the morgue.

DISPLACED PEOPLE

TOTAL DISPLACED IRAQIS 15 Aug 06: 137,862 28 June 06: 110,000 2 June 06: 98,000 13 April 06: 65,000 30 March 06: 30,000 Source: IOM estimates

Increasing numbers of Iraqis are fleeing their homes as sectarian violence has spiralled since the mosque bombing in February 2006.

By August, close to 137,862 people were displaced, living in makeshift camps or with friends or relatives.

The movements of Iraq's 137,000 displaced people reveal the country's sectarian divisions Enlarge Map

Figures from the International Organisation for Migration reveal a pattern of families leaving homes in mixed areas to parts of the country dominated by their own ethnic or religious group.

Sunni families who have moved to the mainly-Sunni Anbar province, for example, are largely from Shia heartlands in the south, while Shias are fleeing from northern, Sunni-dominated provinces to move south.

Many of the displaced tell similar stories of the killings and disappearances of neighbours, threats to their lives and attacks on property.