The Iraq Body Count-a London based group-notes that the war deaths in Iraq are more often the result of "execution style-killings, not...bombings". The killings are being committed by Shiite militia death squads in revenge for bombings by al-Qaida "and other Sunni religious extremists". Many of the executions indict the use of torture as a means of getting others to leave the area. The IBC study included the period between 3/20/03 and 3/19/08 which resulted in 91,358 violent deaths. Execution killings caused 33 % of the deaths while bombings caused 27 % of the deaths. "The drop in violence is also due in part to the fact that many formerly mixed neighborhoods in Baghdad have been effectively segregated after the minority sect was purged by the death squads". Another group-Human Rights Watch-claims the reason for these deaths is the "poor postwar planning" by the US after Saddam Hussein was overthrown. This group further notes that only 4 % of Iraqi deaths-in this study period-resulted from US airstrikes. However, of this small number 46 % were female and 39 % were children.
(Source: "Source of Iraqi war deaths studied" by Kim Gamel of the AP. The Virginian Pilot on 4/18/09)
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