Iraq Coalition Casualty Statistics/External Links (2004)

The following is a chronological listing of External Links (articles) for Iraq Coalition Casualty Statistics (2004).

Also see:
 * Iraq Coalition Casualty Statistics
 * Iraq Coalition Casualty Statistics/External Links (March-April 2003)
 * Iraq Coalition Casualty Statistics/External Links (May-September 2003)
 * Iraq Coalition Casualty Statistics/External Links (October-December 2003)
 * Iraq Coalition Casualty Statistics/Pre-War News Items
 * Iraq Coalition Casualty Statistics/AWOL/Desertion
 * Iraq Coalition Casualty Statistics/Depleted Uranium
 * Iraq Coalition Casualty Statistics/Gulf War Illness
 * Iraq Coalition Casualty Statistics/POW/MIA
 * Iraq Coalition Casualty Statistics/Soldier Suicides

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 * Operation Iraqi Freedom
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom II
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom: Beginnings of a Quagmire
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom: Beginnings of a Quagmire (November 2003)
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom: Beginnings of a Quagmire (December 2003)
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom: Beginnings of a Quagmire (January-March 2004)
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom: Iraqi casualties
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom: Year Two
 * Post-war Iraq

January 2004

 * 1 January 2004: "Most U.S. Iraq Deaths Are Reservists" by Robert Burns, AP: "As they prepare to increase their role in Iraq, including more combat duty, soldiers with the Army National Guard and Army Reserve already are experiencing a bigger share of U.S. military deaths there. ...Overall, since the start of hostilities last March, 14 percent of all U.S. military deaths have been members of the Army Guard or Reserve. The Army says it has had 68 reservists killed so far, compared with nine reservists among the Marines, two in the Navy and one in the Air Force."
 * 3 January 2003: "U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraq Mortar Attack," Reuters: "'The base [of operations at Balad, site of a military airport complex built during Saddam Hussein's rule, ... lies about 50 miles outside Baghdad] came under mortar attack and one soldier was killed by shrapnel, while two others were wounded.' ... The death of the soldier raises to 329 the number of U.S. troops killed in action since Washington launched the war to overthrow Saddam in March. Of those, 214 have been killed by guerrilla attacks since major combat was declared over in May."
 * 7 January 2004: "Vets say visits restricted to U.S. wounded" by Dick Uliano, CNN: According to Dave Gorman, executive director of the Disabled American Veterans, the Pentagon is "severely restricting" DAV counselors, who are "being blocked from carrying out [the DAV's] congressionally chartered mission" ... "from visiting wounded and injured service members at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. ... As of January 7, the Pentagon said 2,431 military personnel have been wounded in action and an additional 383 wounded in non-hostile incidents in Iraq. ... Most service members severely wounded in Iraq and returned to the United States are treated at Walter Reed. ... Gorman questioned measures that require hospital pre-screening and approval of all visits, and full-time escorts during those visits, according to the letter a copy of which CNN obtained. Gorman said because of those escorts there is a lack of privacy over matters the counselors discuss with patients and their families at Walter Reed. ... He said the monitoring of these conversations 'is particularly unnerving and inappropriate as all conversations between a representative and client are confidential in nature.'"
 * 7 January 2004: National Public Radio: "Daniel Zwerdling reports on the number of U.S. troops wounded in Iraq. It's a number that is much higher than many think and also extremely difficult to come by. And of the close to 9,000 wounded, few details are available concerning their injuries."
 * 9 January 2004: "9 Soldiers Dead in Crash in Iraq" by Neela Banerjee, New York Times.
 * 11 January 2004: "U.S. Mortuary Sees No Let-Up from Iraq War Dead" by David Morgan, Reuters: "Nearly a month after Saddam Hussein's capture, American war dead from Iraq continue to arrive with somber regularity at the wind-swept Air Force base in Delaware that is home to the world's largest mortuary. ... According to Pentagon statistics released on Friday, 494 military personnel have died in Iraq."
 * 19 January 2004: "A New Milestone in Iraq: Five Hundred US Soldiers Dead" by Medea Benjamin, Common Dreams.
 * 25 January 2004: "Stress epidemic strikes American forces in Iraq" by Peter Beaumont, Guardian/UK: "Up to one in five of the American military personnel in Iraq will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, say senior forces' medical staff dealing with the psychiatric fallout of the war. ... This revelation follows the disclosure last month that more than 600 US servicemen and women have been evacuated from the country for psychiatric reasons since the conflict started last March. ... At least 22 US soldiers have killed themselves - a rate considered abnormally high - mostly since President George Bush declared an end to major combat on 1 May last year, These suicides have led to a high-level Department of Defence investigation, details of which will be disclosed in the next few weeks."
 * 25 January 2004: "A Look at U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq," AP: "As of Friday, Jan. 23, 505 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq, according to the Department of Defense. Of those, 349 died as a result of hostile action and 156 died of non-hostile causes, the department said. The department did not provide an update Saturday. ... The British military has reported 55 deaths; Italy, 17; Spain, eight; Bulgaria, five; Thailand, two; Denmark, Ukraine and Poland have reported one each. ... Since May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 367 U.S. soldiers have died - 234 as a result of hostile action and 133 of non-hostile causes, according to an AP analysis of releases from the Defense Department and U.S. Central Command."

February 2004

 * 8 February 2004: "7 Soldiers Meet Death in Iraq at 18. Of the more than 500 U.S. troops killed in Iraq, seven were just 18. 'It's a big waste of his life,' one embittered father says" by Mitch Stacy, Los Angeles Times.
 * 8 February 2004: "Wounded U.S. veterans get a raw deal at home" by Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "There's no emotional sting like the one inflicted by that 500 number. It's larger now, the total of Americans dead from an Iraq war launched on false pretenses, but 500 is getting a lot of usage as the ultimate cost of this mess. It's a cost 500 can't begin to illuminate. ... How about at least 9,000 servicemen and women wounded, sickened or injured? How about 6,891 troops medically evacuated for non-combat conditions between March 19 and Oct. 30, 2003? ... 'There are about 2,500 combat casualties,' Dave Autry said on the phone from the Disabled American Veterans offices in Washington. 'The rest are attempted suicides, vehicle accidents, other accidents, illness. Something that's becoming a big concern is lesions caused by exposure to sand fleas that carry a particularly virulent bacteria.' ... 'I can't speak for the DAV's national organization,' Tom said, 'but I have my own feelings about why the Bush administration is bringing the casualties back to the States in the middle of the night and wants to keep organizations like the DAV away from them. I believe the administration wants to keep the American people in the dark about the number of troops being wounded, the severity of the injuries they are receiving and the types of illnesses that may be surfacing.'"
 * 22 February 2004: "10% At Hospital Had Mental Problems", UPI: "As many as 1 of every 10 soldiers from the war on terror evacuated to the Army's biggest hospital in Europe was sent there for mental problems. ... Between 8 and 10 percent of nearly 12,000 soldiers from the war on terror, mostly from Iraq, treated at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany had 'psychiatric or behavioral health issues,' according to the commander of the hospital, Col. Rhonda Cornum. ... That means about 1,000 soldiers were evacuated for mental problems."

March 2004

 * March/April 2004 (Issue): "The Damage Done. It's easy to send soldiers off to war. It's a lot harder to face them when they come home." Photo Essay by Nina Berman; Text By Verlyn Klinkenborg, Mother Jones.
 * 20 March 2004: Note that, since the beginning of 2004, 94 U.S. soldiers have died in a total of 80 days in Iraq, which is more than 1 soldier per day.
 * 31 March 2004: "March Proves Deadly Month for GIs in Iraq" by Robert Burns, AP: "At least 48 U.S. troops died in Iraq during March, up from 21 in February and 46 in January. Nineteen were killed by roadside bombs, or improvised explosive devices, according to military records. The list of dead does not include two Department of the Army civilians killed in Hilla on March 9 or the four civilian contractors, because the Pentagon counts only military deaths. ... November was the deadliest month of the war for U.S. forces, with 82 dead."

April 2004

 * David Morris, "The hidden cost of war. What the Pentagon isn't telling you about friendly fire," Salon, April 5, 2004.
 * Helen Thomas, "Iraq War Becoming a Quagmire," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 6, 2004.
 * Julian Borger and Jonathan Steele, "On the brink of anarchy," Guardian/UK, April 6, 2004. See Shiite Muslim uprising in Iraq.
 * Henza Hendawi, "12 Marines, 66 Iraqis Killed in Battles," AP, April 6, 2004.
 * Jeffrey Gettleman and Douglas Jehl, "Fierce Fighting With Sunnis and Shiites Spreads to 6 Iraqi Cities," New York Times, April 7, 2004: "American forces in Iraq came under fierce attack on Tuesday, with as many as 12 marines killed in Ramadi, near Baghdad, and with Shiite militiamen loyal to a rebel cleric stepping up a three-day-old assault in the southern city of Najaf, American officials said."
 * Anthony Shadid, "U.S. Forces Take Heavy Losses As Violence Spreads Across Iraq. About a Dozen Marines Killed; Foreigners, Scores of Iraqis Die," Washington Post, April 7, 2004: "In addition to Tuesday's casualties, the U.S. military reported that five Marines were killed Monday -- one in Fallujah and the others on the western outskirts of Baghdad -- and five Army soldiers were killed between Sunday and Tuesday in attacks in Kirkuk, Mosul and a Shiite Muslim neighborhood in Baghdad. ... Iraqi casualty figures were incomplete and impossible to verify, but hospital officials have reported dozens killed in clashes in Baghdad and central and southern Iraq since the weekend. Sources quoted by the Associated Press put the number of Iraqi dead at more than 60."
 * Bassem Mroue and Adbul-Qader Saadi, "Hospital Chief: Over 280 Iraqis Killed," AP, April 8, 2004.
 * "Iraq turning worse,", Korea Herald Op-Ed, April 8, 2004.
 * Bradley Graham, "Rotation Reassessed as Toll Spikes," Washington Post, April 8, 2004: "U.S. forces have suffered their bloodiest week in Iraq since just before the fall of Baghdad a year ago, reporting 40 combat deaths in the seven days from March 31 to April 6."
 * "Names of the Dead," April 8, 2004.