Civilian contractor casualties in Iraq

Lost in the debate over American casualties in Iraq is the fact that civilian contractors are killed there, too. Yes, these folks volunteer to work in a war zone, and they know the risks. But they're still being injuried and they're still dying.

According to the Web site Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, 388 civilian contract employees have died in Iraq. I downloaded the list and ran it through Access to draw some conclusions. The data needs to be cleaned up and standardized a bit to allow for thorough analysis, but from what I can tell, at least 156 American civilian contract employees have been kileld in Iraq. Most were killed by IEDs or by roadside bombs or when their convoys were attacked.

At least a dozen and possibly more were executed by beheading, while others were executed by gunshot. That's from all 388, not just Americans.