At Least 232 Civilians Die Doing U.S. Work in Iraq

[struggle4progress]

Reuters
Sunday, January 30, 2005; 4:04 PM
By Sue Pleming

<snip> The quarterly report sent to Congress by the inspector general appointed to audit U.S.-funded work in Iraq said security problems were the biggest obstacle to Iraq's reconstruction and workers faced grave risks daily. <snip>

Not all U.S. employers would have filed DBA claims for workers killed in Iraq and the death toll from civilians killed is likely to be higher than 232, said one U.S. official. <snip>

U.S rebuilding work in Iraq has been criticized for being too slow. The report said as of Jan. 5, only $2.4 billion of the total $18.4 billion had been spent on rebuilding and $10.3 billion had been contractually obligated for future work.

Bowen said his office had looked at 134 potential criminal cases involving U.S.-funded projects and 25 of these had been passed on to other U.S. agencies, 63 had been closed and his department was still looking at 46 cases. <snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49367-2005Jan30.html