Nearly 37,000 people killed in Iraq in 2017, U.S. website claims
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Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – A U.S. website has claimed that at least 36,898 people were killed, and another 8,753 were wounded in Iraq during 2017.
According to a report published by the Antiwar.com on Tuesday, at least 9,036 civilians were killed, and another 6,607 were wounded in Iraq last year.
Speaking about casualties among security men, the U.S. website reported that at least 1,696 security personnel were killed and 1,827 were wounded.
“In September, Coalition forces revealed that over 1,200 Iraqi soldiers were killed during the Mosul campaign alone, nearly doubling the number of dead,” the report read.
The website quoted Kurdish intelligence as reporting in July a belief that at least 40,000 civilians were killed in Mosul alone.
“Among the militants, at least 24,276 were killed, and 309 were wounded. Unlike the civilian and security casualties, the number of militant dead could be an exaggeration, or it could also be a low number,” the report explained.
“These figures should be considered lowball estimates, especially considering that the number of casualties being reported publicly was reduced,” the report read.
“The Iraqi government chose to censor information about security casualties and perhaps even civilian ones. Consequently, at the end of 2016, the United Nations was hectored into limiting the number of casualties it was allowed to compile on the ground,” it concluded.