PHILADELPHIA – President Bush said Monday that the war in Iraq had claimed the lives of 30,000 Iraqi citizens, the first time Bush had discussed publicly the casualty count in Iraq.
Bush ended a speech to the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, a nonpartisan educational group, with an unscripted question-and-answer session with the audience. The first question came from a woman who asked how many Iraqis had been killed since the U.S.-led coalition invaded the country more than two years ago.
Bush responded: “I would say 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis. We’ve lost about 2,140 of our own troops in Iraq.”
White House officials later said the 30,000 figure was not an official U.S. tally, but the best estimate available based on media reports. It appeared to be in line with some previously published estimates by independent monitors. The independent group Iraq Body Count, for example, puts the death toll between 27,383 and 30,892, based on its survey of media, Red Cross and other sources.
The president’s Monday speech was part of a new White House offensive to justify Bush’s decision to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein’s government in March 2003, and his refusal to withdraw U.S. troops before a new government is established and Iraqi security forces are able to contain the insurgency on their own.
On Wednesday, the eve of parliamentary elections in Iraq, Bush will give a speech summarizing the administration’s strategy for achieving “total victory” in Iraq.
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