BAGHDAD — Violence in Iraq left nearly 25,000 civilians dead and 42,500 injured in the two years after the U.S.-led invasion began in March 2003, according to a detailed compilation and analysis of news reports released Tuesday by a pair of Britain-based groups opposed to the war.
The report came amid another 24 hours of violence throughout Iraq that killed at least 29 people, including a political leader, several police officers, a factory worker and eight Iraqi civilian laborers at a U.S. military base.
In compiling the daily litany of the dead -- by adding up the number of fatalities reported in about 10,000 news reports -- Iraqbodycount.org and the Oxford Research Group have created what they call an "early analysis of the military intervention's known human costs." It is the most detailed report on civilian casualties undertaken since the war began.
The U.S. government does not track Iraqi civilian deaths, and although the Iraqi Ministry of Health compiles death records, it did not begin to do so systematically until 2004 and does not regularly release them.
The advocacy groups' basic finding is that "no sector of Iraqi society has escaped," said professor John Sloboda, one of the report's authors.
The data cover the period from the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion on March 20, 2003, through March 19, 2005. The statistics do not include deaths that occurred during the last four months, which has been among the most violent periods.
Since the war began, 1,762 U.S. troops have died, along with 92 British troops and 100 other troops from the U.S.-led coalition, according to Associated Press. No accurate statistics are available on the number of enemy combatants and insurgents killed.
Key findings in the report include:
* Women and children accounted for 18% of the civilians killed.
* Nearly half the deaths occurred in Baghdad.
* 30% of the deaths occurred during the invasion phase.
The study's authors used the term "unknown agents" for killers whose identity could not be determined from news reports. For instance, when three people are fatally shot outside a mosque, it is difficult to say whether it represents the act of an insurgent, a common crime or sectarian violence.
Of those killed by insurgents, criminals or unknown agents, 9.5% were clearly slain by insurgents and 36% by criminals and unknown agents, according to the report.
