Data provided on the http://www.iraqbodycount.net website show that, far from abating, the monthly death rate in 2005 continues to rise, and that the number of media-reported incidents involving the deaths of civilians and captives in the three months to March 2005 [376] is more than double the number for the same months a year ago [140]. April and November 2004 show the highest civilian death totals since the end of the "invasion phase", and result from the two US assaults on Falluja.

Particularly disturbing is that the death rate has increased since the January 31st elections. The reported death toll for February 2005 was 606. This is a significantly higher total than for January, which claimed 447 lives. These figures decisively rebut the claim that elections would lessen the intensity of the insurgency – an insurgency whose stated aim of US military withdrawal was not on the election agenda.

The table below shows provisional figures for each month since May 2003, when President Bush declared an end to "formal hostilities". Also provided in the table is the number of separately reported incidents, month by month.

Iraq Body Count spokesman John Sloboda said "These emerging figures speak for themselves. The Iraqi people have suffered increasingly from the policies of governments who still refuse to either comprehensively assess or accept responsibility for the casualties that have resulted from their actions. In the absence of an official assessment, our researchers have now begun an intensive process of analysing all the original press and media stories, extracting more specific information about both victims and perpetrators in order to reveal in as much detail as possible what can be known about the nature, cause and distribution of civilian casualties in the first two years of this conflict. Today's data are the first fruits of this work, whose full results will be made publicly available in July, at the start of Britain's presidency of the EU and the G8."

Table: Minimum and maximum media-reported civilian deaths May 2003 – February 2005. Source: http://www.iraqbodycount.net/database (as of 10:00 GMT Thursday 17th March 2005)

  Month__________Reported Deaths (min-max)__________Separate Reported Incidents
  May 2003__________453-497__________17
  June 2003__________510-538__________25
  July 2003__________559-595__________25
  August 2003__________591-621__________21
  September 2003__________495-509__________33
  October 2003__________430-450__________39
  November 2003__________408-430__________46
  December 2003__________474-491__________51
  January 2004__________512-528__________52
  February 2004__________530-545__________37
  March 2004__________887-918__________71
  April 2004__________1137-1193__________42
  May 2004__________216-236__________60
  June 2004__________307-338__________52
  July 2004__________273-282__________80
  August 2004__________365-407__________83
  September 2004__________464-504__________71
  October 2004__________356-376__________68
  November 2004__________951-1076__________84
  December 2004__________395-414__________100
  January 2005__________421-447__________140
  February 2005__________554-606__________136
  
  Press Contacts: John Sloboda John@iraqbodycount.org
  Hamit Dardagan Hamit@iraqbodycount.org
  

A