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The Report of the Iraq Inquiry
Most violence was directed at “for lack of a better word, the common Iraqi
civilian”. For over 50 percent of the individuals killed in 2006 there was “… no
identifying data, no apparent or recorded reason, and no discernible affiliation
or target. All we know of these people is that they were killed; this fact alone
suggests that our capacity to understand, analyze, and effectively respond to the
bloodshed is limited by a lack of information.”
237.  In April 2009, researchers from King’s College London, Royal Holloway, University
of London and IBC used IBC’s record of Iraqi non‑combatant civilian deaths to analyse
the nature and effects of various weapons.
238.  The researchers concluded that in events with at least one Iraqi non‑combatant
civilian casualty, the methods that killed the most non‑combatant civilians per event
were aerial bombing (17 per event), combined use of aerial and ground weapons
(17 per event) and suicide bombers on foot (16 per event). Aerial bombs killed on
average nine more non‑combatant civilians per event (17) than aerial missiles (8).
The team commented:
“It seems clear from these findings that to protect civilians from indiscriminate
harm, as required by international humanitarian law … military and civilian policies
should prohibit aerial bombing in civilian areas unless it can be demonstrated – by
monitoring of civilian casualties for example – that civilians are being protected.”
The WikiLeaks Iraq War Logs
On 22 October 2010, WikiLeaks released 391,832 US Army Field Reports, covering the
period from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004
and March 2009).151 WikiLeaks stated that the Field Reports detailed 109,032 deaths in
Iraq over that period, comprising:
66,081 “civilian” deaths;
23,984 “enemy” deaths (“those labelled as insurgents”);
15,196 “host nation” deaths (Iraqi Government forces); and
3,771 “friendly” deaths (coalition forces).
IBC reported that, based on an “early analysis”, the Field Reports contained
15,000 previously unreported civilian deaths.152 Once a full analysis was complete,
casualty data would be integrated into IBC’s record.
IBC stated that the majority of the previously unreported deaths came from small incidents
comprising one to three deaths. That was not unexpected, as larger incidents attracted
more media coverage than smaller incidents.
151  WikiLeaks, 22 October 2010, Iraq War Logs.
152  Iraq Body Count, 22 October 2010, 15,000 previously unknown civilian deaths contained in the Iraq war
Logs released by WikiLeaks.
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