Iraqi Violence In Numbers

While the numbers are still fuzzy and controversial, BBC News has an interesting breakdown of the violence in Iraq that’s worth a read. The initial invasion has without a doubt opened the floodgates for AlQueda and its likes to capatilize on the chaos. If you factor in the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians that died due to imposed UN sanctions, the world has served Iraq pretty well I think. This graph indicates what President Bush meant when he said “Mission Accomplished” back in the few weeks following the invasion…

Although about 80% of insurgent attacks are targeted against coalition forces, the Iraqi population suffers about 80% of all casualties, according to US officials in late 2005…

…By 2006, US military estimates ranged from 8,000 to 20,000, although Iraqi intelligence officials have issued figures as high as 40,000 fighters, plus another 160,000 supporters.

The majority of insurgents are thought to be Iraqi and Sunni. The proportion of foreign fighters in the insurgency is widely considered to be less than 10%, although the US military said in May 2006 that 90% of suicide bombers used by Iraq’s former al-Qaeda leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, were from outside Iraq.