Death in Darfur
Fighting first erupted in Sudan's westernmost region of Darfur in February 2003 when armed opposition groups attacked Sudanese government facilities, including a military airport. They claimed that Darfur has been exploited and (...)
'In the Caucasus, you can buy anything'
This year saw the tenth anniversary of the onset of a near permanent state of war in the former Soviet republic of Chechnya.
Since Russian planes first bombarded Grozny in the winter of 1994, almost half of (...)
January
23 An 11-year-old Palestinian boy is killed and two other youths wounded by Israeli soldiers close to the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
28 At least 13 Palestinians are killed by Israeli occupation forces, according to Israel's (...)
This year, many journalists lost their lives just for doing their job. In fact, 2004 witnessed the highest rate of death in the profession since 1994. Fifty-five journalists lost their lives in countries as various as Bangladesh, Brazil, Dominican (...)
"In Iraq, there was no sign of an 'immediate threat' from weapons of mass destruction." -- Hans Blix, former UN chief weapons inspector
"Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to (...)
Dozens of Palestinian resistance leaders were killed in targeted assassinations by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during 2004. The most prominent among them were Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin, who was killed on 22 (...)
Iraq
"I stand by the decision to go to war against Saddam Hussein and remove this threat to American security, this threat to the Middle East, this thorn in the side of any effort to build a different kind of Middle East." -- US National Security (...)
Iraqi casualties
Civilian death toll
(Different sources give different figures)
Iraqi Ministry of Health
3,853 for the period April-October 2004, of which 328 are women and children
Iraq Body Count
14,876 - 17,072 for the period March 2003 - (...)
The personal stories and testimonies that follow symbolise the current debacle in Iraq, as another year of suffering is coming to an end. Black mourning signs are everywhere, commemorating those killed by booby-trapped cars, US bullets, assassins, (...)
January
8 Nine US soldiers die when their Black Hawk crashes near Falluja.
9 An explosion near a mosque in Baquba, a city to the north of Baghdad, leaves five dead and dozens injured.
12 British Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledges that WMD may (...)
Ariel Sharon's unilateral decision in early 2004 to disband Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip was widely greeted by the international community as a positive gesture by the well-known war criminal. However, time has revealed that this plan, (...)