How Many Muslims Have Been Killed in the American War On Terror? — (February 2019)

The short answer? 0.8 to >1.6 million.

The long answer? Read below.

777,259 Muslims Killed According to Western Sources

This is a list of Muslims killed according to American and Western sources (e.g. Western studies, Wikipedia, etc.).

Iraq — 532,329

Total Iraqis killed are surprisingly hard to find.

Iraq 2003–2011: 405,000

• Source: PLOS study

Iraq 2012–2013: 14,474

• Source: Statistica
• These are serious underestimates since Statistica only looks at news reports and documented deaths.

Iraq 2014–2017: 109,536

• Source: Wikipedia
• I took an average of the figures in “Total deaths: 90,583–128,489.”

Iraq 2018: 3,319

• Source: Statistica.
• These are serious underestimates since Statistica only looks at news reports and documented deaths.

Afghanistan — 167,580

Afghanistan fighters: 136,598

• Source: Wikipedia
• Afghan security forces : 62,000+
• Northern Alliance: 200
• Taliban: 60,000 to 65,000+ => 62,500 average
• al-Qaeda: 2,000+
• ISIL-KP: 2,400+
• I added 62000 + 200 + 62,500 + 2,000 + 2,400.

Afghanistan civilians: 38,480

• Source: Wikipedia
• This figure seems unbelievably low.

Pakistan — 61,000

• Source: Watson Institute.

Libya — 9,350

Libya 2011: 9,350

• Source: Wikipedia
• Confirmed Dead: 9,400 to 20,000 => 14,700 average
• Missing: 4,000
• Total: 18,700
• Let’s say that half were killed by Gaddafi and half were killed by the American-allied forces. This gives us a figure of 9,350.

Libya 2014–present: 10,071

• Source: Wikipedia
• After much thought, I decided not to count this in the total.

Drone Strikes In Somalia/Yemen/Etc. — 4,000?

• Source: A conservative guess.
• Muslims killed by drone strikes are a national secret.

Syria, American Intervention — 3,000?

• Source: A conservative guess.
• Muslims killed by American involvement in Syria are also a national secret.

Yemen Famine — 113,333 (Not Included In Total)

The United States gives aid to Saudi Arabia, who plays a major role in the Yemen famine. However, since the United States is not directly responsible, I decided not to include this in the total.

• Source: Wikipedia
• Children: 85,000+
• Adults: 28,333. Wikipedia gives this as unknown. Children die in greater numbers than adults in famines. I arbitrarily estimated a conservative one adult death for every three child deaths.

Palestine — 75,902 (Not Included In Total)

The United States gives aid to Israel, which is responsible. However, since the United States is not directly responsible, I decided not to include this in the total.

• Source: Jewish Virtual Library
• Probably a serious underestimate due to the nature of the source. I added up all Arabs killed after 1948.

Actual Muslim Deaths

American and Western sources appear to seriously undercount Muslims killed by America’s War On Terror.

Let’s look at two examples.

Afghanistan versus Second Congo War

The Second Congo War was a deadly regional war in central Africa. Wikipedia provides the following figures:

• Afghanistan 2001–2019: 167,580 deaths
• Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) 1998–2008: 3.05 million to 5.75 million deaths

This implies:

• 8,820 Afghanis were killed every year in the Afghanistan War.
• 277,272 to 522,727 Congolese were killed every year in the Second Congo War.
• The Second Congo War killed >31 times more people per year than the Afghanistan War.

In my opinion, these figures are simply impossible to believe. I believe true death tolls in Afghanistan are being underestimated.

(I also believe that true death tolls in the DRC are overestimated. My belief is that international agencies and NGO’s seriously inflate African violence, in order to draw international aid).

Syria Versus Iraq

Again, we have following figures:

• Iraq, 2011-present: 127,329 killed (American and Western sources based on my calculations)
• Syria, 2011–present: 367,965–560,000 killed (Wikipedia)

These figures imply that Syrian death rates were 289%–440% higher.

Syria was indeed more brutal. But consider that the war against ISIS destroyed all of northern Iraq. Mosul was on par with Aleppo.

I believe that American media has an incentive to amplify Syrian deaths. This is because Syria is hostile towards the United States.

I believe that American media has an incentive to depress Iraqi deaths. Higher Iraqi death tolls reflect poorly on American foreign policy.

What Are The Real Numbers?

American and Western figures give 777,259 Muslims killed as a result of the War on Terror. To what extent is this an undercount?

I don’t know. I personally believe the real death toll is much much higher, as much as 100% higher. This would imply 1.6 million Muslims killed due to the War on Terror.

For the purposes of this post, I will be conservative and say that the real death toll is only 25% higher. Which implies that, as of February 2019, at least 970,000 Muslims have been killed by America’s War on Terror.