Updated at 4:59 p.m. EDT, Oct. 14, 2010
The U.S. military has released an Iraqi casualty tally that likely will lead to more acrimonious debate over the true extent of deaths the country has suffered. Meanwhile, at least nine Iraqis were killed and 38 more were wounded in today’s violence.
About 77,000 Iraqis were killed between January 2004 and August 2008, according to a new estimate released by the U.S. military. The number includes civilians and security personnel and falls just short of a Health Ministry estimate that encompassed a slightly longer period. The Health Ministry estimate tracks only the deaths in which a certificate is issued. Because many Iraqis were killed without their deaths being reported to the ministry, the real toll of the war is unknown and this new number should be considered only a base estimate.
In Baghdad, four people were killed and seven more were injured near the Diyala Bridge in an attack on an Iraqiya party politician who was among the wounded. A bomb left on a university professor’s vehicle exploded on Maghreb Street, killing him and wounding two others. A sticky bomb left on a car in Talibiya killed the driver and wounded a passenger. Another sticky bomb killed a policeman and wounded a bystander when it exploded in Saadoun. An I.E.D. in Adhamiya wounded three pedestrians. A sticky bomb in Karrada wounded two people. Late in the day, a bomb wounded 10 people, including two civilians during an attack on a police patrol in Doura. Also, a blast targeting Awakening Council members in al-Rai wounded five people, including two pedestrians.
Gunmen killed a cleric in Sadr City last night.
In Mosul, gunmen killed a civilian, while two policeman were wounded in a bomb attack on a bridge.
Mortars falling on an Awakening Council base in Balad Ruz wounded three members.
Gunmen in military uniforms wounded two men, one a Peshmerga officer, in a drive-by shooting in Kirkuk. Twelve suspects were arrested in an operation southwest of the city.
A prison escapee was recaptured in Tal Afar. The man was serving a life sentence when he and about 140 others escaped from Badush Prison last April.
Twenty-eight suspects were captured in Baquba.
The U.S. Marine Corps asked an appeals court to reinstate the overturned convention of a Marine accused of killing an Iraqi policeman. Meanwhile, an U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employee stands accused of taking bribes from a construction company seeking contracts in Iraq.
The Interior Ministry announced a $50 million contract to install cameras along the poorly demarcated border with Iran.
Turkish soldiers came across members from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey. Two soldiers and a PKK rebel were killed in an ensuing clash. Another soldier was wounded.
