Civilians Killed & Wounded

People in war zones are killed in their homes, in markets, and on roadways, by bombs, bullets, fire, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and drones. Civilians die at checkpoints, as they are run off the road by military vehicles, when they step on mines or cluster bombs, as they collect wood or tend to their fields, and when they are kidnapped and executed for purposes of revenge or intimidation. Many times more people die from reverberating effects like the destruction of infrastructure and resulting consequences for population health. For example, war refugees often lose access to a stable food supply, resulting in increased malnutrition and vulnerability to disease.

In Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, and elsewhere since October 7, 2023, war costs such as forced displacement and the destruction of hospitals will inevitably lead to far higher numbers of deaths than direct war violence. After one year of war, 96 percent of Gaza’s population (2.15 million people) faced acute levels of food insecurity. According to an October 2, 2024 letter to President Biden from a group of U.S. physicians, 62,413 people in Gaza have died of starvation.

The U.S. post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia have taken a tremendous human toll. The total death toll in these war zones, including direct and indirect deaths, is at least 4.5-4.7 million and counting. Of these, an estimated 408,000 civilians died directly from war violence. Precise mortality figures remain unknown.

In Afghanistan, even after the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2021, people continue to die due to the war-induced breakdown of the economy, public health, security, and infrastructure. The majority of the population faces impoverishment and food insecurity. The CIA armed Afghan militia groups to fight Islamist militants and these militias are responsible for serious human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings of civilians. Unexploded ordnance from this war and landmines from previous wars continue to kill, injure, and maim civilians. Fields, roads, and school buildings are contaminated by ordnance, which often harms children as they go about chores like gathering wood.

In Pakistan, the U.S. increased its support of counter-insurgency campaigns by the government through direct military aid and training, and compensation for assistance to the U.S. war in Afghanistan. This increased U.S. support coincided with a dramatic escalation of the conflict between Pakistani insurgents and their government. 

In Iraq, the U.S. invasion and occupation beginning in 2003, and later military operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria beginning in 2014, have compounded the ill effects of decades of harmful U.S. policy actions towards Iraq since the 1960s, including economic sanctions in the 1990s that were devastating for Iraqis. Despite billions committed to aiding and reconstructing Iraq, many parts of the country still suffer from lack of essential infrastructure.

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Key Findings

• At least 408,000 civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen died as a direct result of the post-9/11 wars. Civilian deaths have also resulted from U.S. post-9/11 military operations in Somalia and other countries.
  

• An estimated additional 3.6-3.8 million people have died indirectly in these war zones, bringing the total death toll of the post-9/11 wars to at least 4.5-4.7 million and counting.

• More than 7.6 million children under five in post-9/11 war zones are suffering from acute malnutrition.

• Indirect war deaths from reverberating effects, like malnutrition and the destruction of healthcare systems and the environment, far outnumber deaths from combat.

(Page updated as of October 2024)