The Year of the Deadliest in Iraq

The Year of the Deadliest in Iraq

American Aid Worker Is Shot Dead in Baghdad, Iraq On August 3, 2008, a member of the U.S. Army killed two Iraqi soldiers and then himself at a checkpoint in the Sadr City district of Baghdad. This is the single worst civilian death in Iraq’s violent first year, but the news did not stop the death toll from rising.

On September 13, the United Nations said more than 13,500 Iraqis had been killed in the year. On October 9, the United Nations said that at least 46,000 Iraqis had been killed since the invasion in 2003, and that 1 million of them were children. In the first three months of 2007, there were more than 8,800 deaths.

On December 13, 2007, Human Rights Watch called it the most devastating year in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and it continued to be a devastating year in Iraq as civilian deaths rose to 1,064. On January 1, 2008, the United Nations Office For The Coordination Of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that by August 2008 there were more than 3,200 civilian deaths in Iraq from violence, with at least 2,300 Iraqis killed by the time the agency closed the records one year later.

The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Near East Affairs said that the year was a “national tragedy,” and on February 3, 2008, the State Department confirmed that since March 1, 2007, the U.S. has provided more than $8.8 billion to Iraq for reconstruction and humanitarian assistance, and the agency called the death toll “one of the worst” ever experienced. By late 2008, U.S. government statistics were not available.

Civilian Casualties

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance says that civilian casualties continue to be the greatest issue in Iraq.

During the worst year, Human Rights Watch counted more than 1,500 deaths, in addition to thousands of noncombatant deaths, according to U.S. government data.

On January 1, 2005, the number

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