[This site may have already appeared on Circulars but I'm posting the link again since, with the mixture of news reports coming out about what's happening over there, one might need help keeping count. But IMHO, I think these figures are much too low -- the army has employed a policy (since Vietnam, I think) of not counting the enemy war dead, and so it's left to journos to put the figures together, either through eyewitness or interviews. You can put a body count counter on your site if you want -- I opted out as this page takes long enough to load, and the Javascript might give the blog some problems.
See story below from the Red Cross about how they can't even keep count of the casualties.]
Iraq Body Count | DATABASE | Latest Updates
This is a human security project to establish an independent and comprehensive public database of media-reported civilian deaths in Iraq resulting directly from military actions by the USA and its allies in 2003. Results and totals are continually updated and made immediately available on this page and on various IBC counters which may be freely displayed on any website, where they will be automatically updated without further intervention. Casualty figures are derived solely from a comprehensive survey of online media reports. Where these sources report differing figures, the range (a minimum and a maximum) are given. All results are independently reviewed and error-checked by at least three members of the Iraq Body Count project team before publication.
GENEVA - The number of casualties in Baghdad is so high that hospitals have stopped counting the number of people treated, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Sunday.
"No one is able to keep accurate statistics of the admitted and transferred war wounded any longer as one emergency arrival follows the other in the hospitals of Baghdad," the ICRC said in a statement.
"Ambulances are picking up the wounded and running them to the triage areas and on to hospitals," it said. "Some of the wounded try to reach the nearest hospitals by foot."
The neutral Swiss-run organization - the main aid agency left in Iraq - gave no estimates on the number of deaths and did not confirm U.S. Central Command estimates that between 2,000 and 3,000 Iraqi fighters were killed in Saturday's foray into Baghdad by American armored vehicles.
"All of the hospitals are under pressure and the medical staff is working without respite," said the ICRC statement. "Despite the intense and desperate activity, hospital staff is still managing the situation."
But it said that hospitals urgently needed more water supplies. Given the general power outage in Baghdad, most hospitals and water installations are now being powered by backup generators. It said it was getting many requests for service kits, spare parts and repairs for water plants.
The ICRC said that Red Cross delegates who reached the southern city of Basra reported that the medical situation was generally under control and that there were no signs of epidemics. But it said it feared the worst for other hospitals outside Baghdad and Basra.
Posted by Brian Stefans at April 06, 2003 03:04 PM | TrackBack