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By Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad 15 October 2009 AT LEAST 85,994 Iraqis lost their lives between 2004 and 2008 because of violence, Iraq's government has said, in its first comprehensive tally released since the war began.  The report by the human rights ministry came out as part of a larger study on human rights in the country. It said 85,694 people were killed in the four-year period, and 147,195 were wounded during the same period.An Iraqi man rushes his wounded son to hospital. The toll counted Iraqi civilians, military and police. It did not cover foreign military deaths, insurgents, or other foreigners, including security contractors. The Iraqi death toll has been a hotly disputed subject and critics across the political spectrum have accused others of manipulating the death numbers to sway public opinion. As Iraq became increasingly violent following the 2003 invasion, it also became increasingly difficult to track such figures independently on a wide scale. The most recent numbers from Iraq Body Count, a private London-based group that has tracked civilian casualties since the war began, puts the number of civilian casualties as of 14 October at 93,540. ( >>Continued ) | ||||||||||
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