BAGHDAD (AFX) - A top Iraqi official said today that more than 2,000 people were killed and 1,600 detained in the massive US-Iraqi offensive on the city of Fallujah.
'The number of people killed exceeds 2,085 and the number of people detained exceeds 1,600,' national security adviser Qassem Daoud told reporters in Baghdad.
He said it remained difficult to identify bodies found in Fallujah, which was bombarded by US and Iraqi troops for several days from Nov 8 in the largest military operation in Iraq since the US-led invasion last year.
The US military had earlier announced that at least 1,200 rebels had been killed in the operation, which was aimed at reclaiming a city that had become a base for insurgents.
No estimates have been given of civilian casualties in Fallujah.
Humanitarian assistance has struggled to obtain access to the city, where sporadic violence is still reported. The Iraqi Red Crescent was able for the first time today to deliver aid to civilian families stranded in the city of 300,000. The US military and aid organisations have only just started discussing the means of retrieving the bodies which are still believed to be strewn across the deserted city west of Baghdad.
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