Iraq Body Count project (IBC) is a web-based effort to record civilian deaths resulting from the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. Included are deaths attributable to coalition and insurgent military action, sectarian violence and criminal violence, which refers to excess civilian deaths caused by criminal action resulting from the breakdown in law and order which followed the coalition invasion. As of February 2019, the IBC has recorded 183,249 – 205,785 civilian deaths. The IBC has a media-centered approach to counting and documenting the deaths. Other sources have provided differing estimates of deaths, some much higher. See Casualties of the Iraq War.
The project uses reports from English-language news media (including Arabic media translated into English), NGO-based reports, and official records that have been released into the public sphere to compile a running total. On its database page the IBC states: "Gaps in recording and reporting suggest that even our highest totals to date may be missing many civilian deaths from violence." The group is staffed by volunteers consisting mainly of academics and activists based in the UK and the US. The project was founded by John Sloboda and Hamit Dardagan.
According to Jonathan Steele, writing in The Guardian, IBC "is widely considered as the most reliable database of Iraqi civilian deaths". But some researchers regard it at best as a floor, or baseline for mortality, and that it underestimates actual mortality by potentially several factors.John Tirman, The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America's Wars (Oxford University Press, 2011), esp. Chapter 10; Neta Crawford, "Assessing the Human Toll of the Post-9/11 Wars: The Dead and Wounded in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, 2001-2011," Cost of War project, 13 June 2011, ; Christine Tapp, Frederick M. Burkle, Jr., Kumanan Wilson, Tim Takaro, Gordon H. Guyatt, Hani Amad, and Edward J. Mills, "Iraq War Mortality Estimates: A Systematic Review," Confl ict and Health, vol. 2, no. 1 (7 March 2008): 9–10, http://www.confl ictandhealth.com/content/pdf/1752–1505–2-1.pdf
Project statement The IBC overview page states:
"This is an ongoing human security project which maintains and updates the world's only independent and comprehensive public database of media-reported civilian deaths in Iraq that have resulted from the 2003 military intervention by the USA and its allies. The count includes civilian deaths caused by coalition military action and by military or paramilitary responses to the coalition presence (e.g. insurgent and terrorist attacks). It also includes excess civilian deaths caused by criminal action resulting from the breakdown in law and order which followed the coalition invasion."
The project quotes the top US general in Iraq, Tommy Franks, as saying "We don't do body counts". Franks gave this terse answer ("You know we don't do body counts") at Bagram Air Base in answer to journalists' questions on counting casualties during Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan.
Method
The IBC overview page states: "Deaths in the database are derived from a comprehensive survey of commercial media and NGO-based reports, along with official records that have been released into the public sphere. Reports range from specific, incident based accounts to figures from hospitals, morgues, and other documentary data-gathering agencies."Methods. Iraq Body Count. Overview.
Project volunteers sample news stories to extract minimum and maximum numbers of civilian casualties. Each incident reported at least by two independent news sources is included in the Iraq Body Count database. In December 2007, IBC announced that they would begin to include deaths reported by one source, and that the number of deaths provided by such reports would be openly tracked on its database page. Between 3.3 and 3.5 percent of deaths recorded by IBC are currently listed on the database page as derived from a single source.
IBC is purely a civilian count. IBC defines civilian to exclude Iraqi soldiers, insurgents, suicide bombers or any others directly engaged in war-related violence. A "min" and "max" figure are used where reports differ on the numbers killed, or where the civilian status of the dead is uncertain.
IBC is not an "estimate" of total civilian deaths based on projections or other forms of extrapolation. It is a compilation of documented deaths, as reported by English-language media worldwide. See the sources section farther down for more info on the media and their sources.
Some have suggested bias of sources could affect the count. If a number is quoted from an anti-coalition source, and the Allies fail to give a sufficiently specific alternate number, the anti-coalition figure is entered into IBC's database as both a maximum and a minimum. The same works vice versa. The project argues that these potential over- and undercounts by different media sources would tend to balance out.
IBC's online database shows the newspaper, magazine or website where each number is reported, and the date on which it was reported. However, this has been criticized as insufficient because it typically does not list the original sources for the information: that is, the NGO, journalist or government responsible for the number presented. Hence, any inherent bias due to the lack of reliable reports from independent or Allied sources is not readily available to the reader.
Sources The IBC overview page states that its sources include "public domain newsgathering agencies with web access". They include sources that are from sites updated at least once a day, are "separately archived on the site, with a unique URL", are "widely cited or referenced by other sources", are in English, and have "fully public (preferably free) web-access"
Primary sources used by the media are listed in the 2003 to 2005 IBC report. The sources are followed by the number of deaths reported from that source.
Mortuaries. 8,913 Medics. 4,846 Iraqi officials. 4,376 Eyewitnesses. 3,794 Police. 3,588 Relatives. 2,780 US-Coalition. 2,423 Journalists. 1,976 NGOs. 732 Friends/Associates. 596 Other. 196
Web counters The IBC overview page states: "Results and totals are continually updated and made immediately available here and on various IBC web counters which may be freely displayed on any website or homepage, where they are automatically updated without further intervention."
Body counts change over time Civilian deaths in the Iraq war (cumulative):
Date Min Max 9 April 2003 996 1,174 10 August 2003 6,087 7,798 25 April 2004 8,918 10,769 12 September 2004 11,797 13,806 12 March 2005 16,231 18,510 6 December 2005 27,354 30,863 28 June 2006 38,725 43,140 2 October 2006 43,546 48,343 1 March 2007 57,482 63,421 5 August 2007 68,347 74,753 2 May 2008 83,336 90,897 24 October 2010 98,585 107,594 12 January 2012 104,594 114,260 1 January 2018 180,093 201,873 1 January 2019 182,769 205,191 1 January 2020 184,776 207,645 1 January 2021 185,497 208,547
The figures above are those that appeared in real time on the IBC counters on or around those dates. However, those in the first line were increased radically in the following days and weeks. IBC's current Max figure for the entire invasion phase, up to 30 April 2003, now stands at 7,299. Because IBC performs analyses (e.g., accounts for multiple reports, eliminates overlaps, etc.), there is always a delay between the date on which incidents occur and the addition of their numbers to the IBC database. Another factor is that some reports emerge weeks or even months later – for instance the emergence of Baghdad city morgue reports for 2005 in early 2006. The 6 December line above was taken from the IBC total as it stood on 6 December 2005, but the emergence of the morgue figures later increased IBC's figures for that period to 31,818–35,747. The majority of civilians death from 2003 to 2011 were attributed to unknown actors.
Cumulative updated body counts table Following are the yearly IBC Project violent civilian death totals, broken down by month from the beginning of 2003. Table below is copied irregularly from the source page, and is soon out-of-date as data is continually updated at the source. As of 12 June 2023 the top of the IBC database page with the table says 186,901 – 210,296 "Documented civilian deaths from violence". That page also says: "Gaps in recording and reporting suggest that even our highest totals to date may be missing many civilian deaths from violence."Iraq Body Count database. It has a table of monthly civilian deaths from violence, 2003 onwards. The database page says: "Gaps in recording and reporting suggest that even our highest totals to date may be missing many civilian deaths from violence."
+ Monthly civilian deaths from violence, 2003 onwardsJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecYearlytotals2003323986344854559764683356651548752412,152200461066310041303655910834878104210331676112911,73720051222129790511451396134715362352144413111487114116,583200615461579195718052279259432982865256730413095290029,52620073035268027282573285422192702248313911326112499726,112200886110931669131791575564070461259454058610,28620093724094385904285644316533524412264785,38220102673053363853873854885202543153072184,16720113892543112893813863084013973662883924,16220125313563773923045294694224002902532994,6222013357360403545888659114510131306118087011269,85220141097972102910371100408815803340147417381436132720,218201514901625110520131295135518451991144512971021109617,57820161374125814591192127614051280137593519701738113116,393201711199821918181618711858149859749039734629113,18320184744104023032292092302012413051601553,3192019323271123140167130145931513612742152,3932020114148735274644982547074549082021645649664946876041652363669202262464231824467806863659074020235652768545314
2006 The Iraq Body Count project states for the week ending 31 December 2006:"A Week in Iraq – Iraq Body Count". Week ending 31 December 2006."A Week in Iraq – Iraq Body Count". Archive of Previous Weeks in Iraq. "It was a truly violent year, as around 24,000 civilians lost their lives in Iraq. This was a massive rise in violence: 14,000 had been killed in 2005, 10,500 in 2004 and just under 12,000 in 2003 (7,000 of them killed during the actual war, while only 5,000 killed during the 'peace' that followed in May 2003). In December 2006 alone around 2,800 civilians were reported killed. This week there were over 560 civilian deaths reported."
From the above quote here are IBC yearly death totals (not counting the initial 7000 invasion deaths):
2003: 5,000 2004: 10,500 2005: 14,000 2006: 24,000
March 2003 to March 2005 report The IBC released a report detailing the civilian deaths it had recorded between 20 March 2003 and 19 March 2005. From page 26: "The analyses in this dossier cover the first two years of the military intervention in Iraq from 20 March 2003 to 19 March 2005, and are based on data which was available by 14 June 2005."
The report says the US and its allies were responsible for the largest share (37%) of the 24,865 deaths. The remaining deaths were attributed to anti-occupation forces (9%), crime (36%), and unknown agents (11%).
Who did the killing?
37%. US-led forces killed 37% of civilian victims. 9%. Anti-occupation forces/insurgents killed 9% of civilian victims. 36%. Post-invasion criminal violence accounted for 36% of all deaths. 11%. Unknown agents (11%).
Killings by anti-occupation forces, crime and unknown agents have shown a steady rise over the entire period.
Who was killed?
24,865 civilians were reported killed in the first two years. Men accounted for over 80% of all civilian deaths. Baghdad alone recorded almost half of all deaths.
When did they die?
30% of civilian deaths occurred during the invasion phase before 1 May 2003. Post-invasion, the number of civilians killed was almost twice as high in year two (11,351) as in year one (6,215).