Death toll near 500 in Fallujah, Baghdad

BAGHDAD -- In the first detailed accounting of Iraqi casualties in the fighting that erupted across the country this month, officials at the Iraqi Ministry of Health said yesterday that 264 have been killed and 791 wounded in the Fallujah area since April 5, while in Baghdad another 235 have been killed and 832 wounded.

The health ministry's nationwide data also show that 12 percent of the Iraqis killed were women or children 15 years old or younger.

The figures are the first to be disclosed by an official source with access to hospital records from the entire country. Until now, Iraqi casualty totals have generally been derived from unofficial accounts from witnesses and media reports.

The health ministry's casualty toll for Fallujah was substantially lower than the death counts reported since fighting broke out there at the start of April. The data also show a nationwide death toll for April's fighting that is much lower than the figures widely reported in the media, some of them exceeding 1,100.

The Baghdad casualty figures, however, were higher than previous figures for the fighting in the capital during April.

Media reports relying on figures compiled by a Fallujah hospital director have said that 600 Iraqis had been killed in the city -- more than twice the number tallied by the health ministry.

Dr. Shakir M. Al-Ainachi, director of the Ministry of Health's new emergency operations center, said he received his figures from the same doctor -- Dr. Rafa' Hayat al Issawi -- who was quoted by several media as saying casualties were as high as 600 dead.

The lower figures were later reported by a public health official who traveled from Ramadi to Fallujah to check documents and inspect graves, including those of people buried in a soccer field, Ainachi said.

"He was under a lot of pressure, political pressure," Ainachi said of Issawi. "You don't know who's standing behind the camera."

Death tolls from this month's fierce fighting across Iraq, especially in Fallujah, are a highly sensitive issue. Iraqis rallied around the people of Fallujah, sending supplies and vowing to fight with insurgents -- to a large degree in response to allegations from religious and political leaders that US Marines were slaughtering civilians in the city wholesale.

There was no way to verify the ministry's figures, and Ainachi acknowledged that his team's counts might not include combat deaths that were are never reported, as well as deaths that family members want to keep secret.

Nationwide, 612 Iraqis were killed in a period beginning April 5, when the Shi'ite Army of the Mahdi militia began an uprising at the same time as insurgents and Marines started their heaviest fighting in Fallujah and nearby Sunni Triangle cities, through yesterday morning.

The number of dead and wounded -- and what percentage of them are women and children -- is at the center of an unending argument between US officials and their Iraqi and Arab critics.

In repeated briefings and news conferences, US military and civilian occupation officials have portrayed the military campaign as carefully targeting insurgents.

"In the history of warfare there has never been a more humane campaign than the one waged by coalition forces, started on March 19th of last year and through today, and that goes for the operations in Fallujah," General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Baghdad news conference last week.

His unusually passionate statement came in response to an Iraqi journalist who asked Myers: "Do you believe in the day of the judgment for the killing of those that happened in Fallujah?"

Critics of the Fallujah campaign, including several members of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, have said American military tactics are causing excessive civilian casualties. Some even go so far as to accuse the United States of purposely targeting civilians in revenge for the killing of Americans.

While the new Iraqi government statistics are sure to be contested, Ainachi said that they exist at all marks a historic shift in the way the Iraqi government deals with information -- particularly sensitive information about deaths in conflict.

"In this country, we used to be deceived by our government and by our officials, so this is why people are full of conspiracy theories," said Ainachi, a former military doctor and an orthopedic surgeon. "We are doing our best to be very truthful and very honest. One day people will believe that it's true."

He acknowledged, "We just put out these numbers and people can interpret them as they like."

Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the top US commander in Iraq, said Tuesday that US forces had killed at least 1,000 insurgents so far this month. That compares with 100 Americans killed, itself the highest monthly toll since the Iraq war began.

Ainachi couldn't explain the discrepancy between the US estimate and his count. US officials do not provide detailed figures on Iraqi casualties.

His statistics don't differentiate between insurgents and civilians. The vast majority of Iraqi casualties were men -- 80 percent of those killed and 90 percent of those wounded nationwide, Ainachi said.

Ainachi's Operations Center at the health ministry headquarters -- a small room walled with maps of different cities, each with the latest tally of dead and wounded from that region written in red marker on it -- has been working only since the beginning of April.

The center compiles the data from reports it receives from Ministry of Health offices in all the provinces, based on hospital reports and death certificates. Its communications are rudimentary; it has a cellular phone, a satellite phone, and a land line, but some of the phones in the provinces don't work well and reports on paper are hand-delivered days late.

Ainachi acknowledged that sometimes people are buried before their families get death certificates, particularly in the current chaos. He said the death toll might grow by 10 or 15 percent as families register their dead, as they are required to do to resolve inheritances and family law issues.

He also said the numbers are likely to overrepresent women and children. It's possible that some fighters did not come to the hospitals for fear of being captured or arrested, he said, even though he said doctors in Fallujah were generally committed to treating anyone and not asking any questions.

The center takes care not to count casualties twice when a person has registered at two hospitals -- a common mistake that has led to inflated casualty counts in the past, Ainachi said. He added that explosive devices caused more of the casualties than bullets.

Thanassis Cambanis of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Anne Barnard can be reached at abarnard@globe.com.