ANSD : U.S. ‘war on terror’ has killed 500,000 people: study

THU 28 - 11 - 2024

Date: Nov 9, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

U.S. ‘war on terror’ has killed 500,000 people: study

WASHINGTON: About half a million people have died violently in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan due to the U.S. “war on terror” that was launched following the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, according to a study released Thursday. The report by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs put the death toll at between 480,000 and 507,000 people but said the actual number is likely higher.

The new toll “is a more than 110,000 increase over the last count, issued just two years ago in August 2016,” Brown said in a statement.

“Though the war on terror is often overlooked by the American public, press and lawmakers, the increased body count signals that, far from diminishing, this war remains intense.”

The death toll includes insurgents, local police and security forces, civilians and U.S. and allied troops.

The report’s author, Neta Crawford, said many of those reported by U.S. and local forces as militants may actually have been civilians.

“We may never know the total direct death toll in these wars,” Crawford wrote.

“For example, tens of thousands of civilians may have died in retaking Mosul and other cities from ISIS [Daesh] but their bodies have likely not been recovered.”

The report states that between 182,272 and 204,575 civilians have been killed in Iraq, 38,480 in Afghanistan and 23,372 in Pakistan.

Mosul was recaptured by Iraqi forces from Daesh in a violent 8-month battle in 2017 with the support of the U.S. military.

Nearly 7,000 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraq is facing a spate of bombings and kidnappings in recent months that has raised concerns about security. The tally does not include all people who have died indirectly as a result of war, including through a loss of infrastructure or disease.

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