4 000 Iraqis 'die every month'

2006-01-19 14:40

Madrid - Between 3 000 and 4 000 Iraqis are killed every month, rendering "ridiculous" United States President George W Bush's estimate of about 30 000 civilian casualties since the start of the war, said veteran British journalist Robert Fisk on Wednesday.

The reports said the figures were compiled during several recent trips to the country occupied since March 2003 by US-led forces.

Fisk was promoting his book: The Great War for Civilisation.

Fisk said the casualty rate meant up to 48 000 Iraqis a year were dying in the conflict, "the figure of 30 000 plus is ridiculous", adding that the West didn't care about Iraqi deaths.

Bush quoted the figure in the lead-up to Iraq's general election in December. The White House later made clear that it was not an official government estimate, but was based on media reports.

According to an Arabic-speaking journalist, the Americans were trapped and the only way out was to talk directly to the insurgents, mostly former Iraqi soldiers who had nothing to do with al-Qaeda.

One of the few reporters to interview Osama bin Laden, Fisk said Washington initially supported al-Qaeda's creator in the same way that Saddam Hussein was once backed by the Americans.

He said: "Most of the people we hate we actually created."

- AFP