The human cost of the war in Iraq

Posted Mon, 24 Mar 2003

Following are details of dead and wounded in Iraq in the first five days of the US-led war against Iraq, according to official statements and confirmed reports.

Here is a day-by-day breakdown of the casualties confirmed so far:

Thursday, March 20

The first day of war, featuring the US bombardment of Baghdad and the initial incursions into southern Iraq, leaves four Iraqi soldiers dead, according to state television which gave no details of how they were killed.

Friday 21

Two US Marines are killed in Iraq, the first American casualties of the war. Eight British Royal Marines and four US soldiers die when their CH-46 Sea Knight transport helicopter crashes in Kuwait.

Iraq reports three people dead amid further bombardments of Baghdad. One is said to be a driver of Palestinian origin hit by a missile between Baghdad and the Jordan border.

Saturday 22

Six British soldiers and an American soldier are killed when two Royal Navy helicopters collide over the Gulf.

An apparently disaffected US soldier hurls a grenade into a tent in a military camp in Kuwait where officers are meeting. One soldier dies of his injuries the following day.

US and British troops encircle the southern city of Basra and bombard the city. Iraqi Ministry of Information accuses the Americans of having killed 77 people and left 366 injured among the civilian population.

A US air assault on the Kurdish Islamist groups Ansar al-Islam and Komala Islami Kurdistan (KIK) in northern Iraq leaves at least 45 dead.

Four Iraqis die in raids on Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town, north of Baghdad.

Four Jordanian students, returning home, are killed close to Mosul in northern Iraq when a missile falls close to their car.

An Australian TV journalist is killed in Kurdistan in a suicide car bomb blast.

Sunday 23

A US Marine dies in a road accident in southern Iraq, according to central command in Qatar.

The first "friendly fire" incident of the war sees two British airmen die when their Tornado is shot down by mistake by a Patriot missile.

A Baath Party official is killed in skirmishes between Americans and Iraqis in the Najaf region, south of Baghdad.

A British TV war correspondent is pronounced dead by his news organisation after apparently being shot by coalition troops. Two of his colleagues are still missing.

Iraq claims 25 American and British soldiers are killed in fighting around the southern city of Nasiriyah. The US Army admits deaths and injuries but no figures, while the Israeli public TV and radio monitoring service says it is six dead and around 50 injured.

Monday 24

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Said Al-Sahhaf announces 24 dead and 411 injured in bombardments of Baghdad, Karbala, Basra and Babel.

Five people, including one woman, are killed and 28 are injured when a missile hits a densely-populated area of Baghdad.

Five Syrians working in Iraq are confirmed dead and 10 others injured after a missile attack on their bus near Ratba, western Iraq, on Sunday morning, as they headed for the border.

Two British soldiers are reported missing, believed killed, by the Defence Ministry in London, after an attack on the convoy their vehicle was travelling with in southern Iraq on Sunday morning.

A British soldier is killed in action south of Basra, the first confirmed member of British ground forces to die in combat since the war began.

Source: AFP