Almost 25,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the two years since the invasion, and four times as many died at the hands of US-led forces than suicide bombers and other insurgents, according to a detailed study of the human cost of the conflict, write Jonathan Steele and Richard Norton-Taylor in London.
The survey, which calculates the toll of dead and injured since March 2003, also shows that the rate of criminal violence has risen dramatically. It comes after a particularly bloody few days in Iraq. Gunmen yesterday shot dead two Sunni Arab members of a committee drafting Iraq's new constitution, and an aide.
Mujbil al-Sheikh Isa, Dhamin Hussein Ileywi and Aziz Ibrahim were gunned down as they left a restaurant in Baghdad's central Karrada district. Sheikh Isa and Mr Ileywi were members of the 71-strong constitutional committee and Mr Ibrahim was described by political allies as a member of an advisory body helping them.
Also yesterday 13 Iraqis were killed when gunmen in two cars attacked a minibus bringing workers to a US base in Baquba, 65km (40 miles) north of the capital, said a police source. The minibus driver and nine workers were killed after the gunmen blocked the bus and opened fire. Three other civilians died when the bus careered into their car, the police source said.
The Iraq Body Count and the Oxford Research Group, the two independent researchers behind the study, said the figures should be regarded as the "baseline of the minimum number of deaths".
It has concluded that:
Every death was verified by at least two sources before being included in the research, based on figures from Iraqi mortuaries, the Iraqi ministry of health, and media reports.
One of the many surprises in the survey is the huge surge in crime since the invasion. It says the criminal murder rate has soared 20 fold since the invasion. "This is the big untold story," said John Sloboda of the Oxford Research Group. "There has been a massive breakdown in law and order and almost total impunity for criminals."
The total number of deaths in the study is significantly lower than the estimated 98,000 figure in a disputed study in the medical journal the Lancet last autumn. Prof Sloboda said yesterday's report provided "an absolutely firm, unshakeable baseline of the minimum number of violent deaths".
The study shows that more than 45,000 Iraqis have been wounded since March 2003, two-thirds by coalition forces. Almost twice as many civilians (11,351) died in the second year after the invasion.
The report does not cover deaths of Iraqi forces in combat, but does include those of policemen and recruits queueing to join the security forces.
Since Friday over 150 people have been killed in suicide bombings throughout the country. The transitional national assembly has called on Iraqis of all ethnicities and localities to observe a minute's silence today in memory of the victims of the suicide bombing at Mussayyib which killed 98 people and injured 130 last Saturday.