“Coalition” Death Toll reaches 1,000

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Tuesday May 11, 2004 16:46 by Jo Take

At least 1,000 “Coalition” Troops, the vast majority of them American, have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq since the post-September 11th launch of Americas wars of revenge.

The death which brought this unwelcome milestone, of a Sergeant in the Dutch army in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in As-Samawah, was ironically, the first fatality suffered by the Netherlands in Iraq. It was perhaps a symbol of the new era of brutality launched by the current American Government that the 1,000th victim should come from a land famously associated with tolerance and previously looked upon as a near-perfect example of functioning democracy.

The death toll (Source: Iraq Coalition Casualty Count) does not include deaths of contractors/ mercenaries, which is believed to number nearly 100, almost all of them ex-military Special Forces.