As we approach the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War, AOAV looks back at the war’s continuing legacy on civilian harm from explosive weapon use in the country. 

Last week, more than 80 countries endorsed a new international commitment to address one of the greatest threats to civilians during armed conflict: the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.

86% of the 3,306 recorded civilian casualties from explosive violence perpetrated by signatories to the Political Declaration occurred in populated areas.

20 people were killed and 36 injured in an Al Shabaab car bomb attack on government offices in Beledweyne, 3 Oct

Dr Thomas Gregory talks with Professor Mike Spagat about his article, Calibrating violence: Body counts as a weapon of war (European Journal of International Security).

Over the past two decades, service personnel from the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) have been deployed in operations overseas in at least 80 countries in the so-called ‘War on Terror’. Deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, launched in response to the 9/11 attacks, were by far the most substantial. The lethal cost […]

Iraq lies in the Fertile Crescent that stretches in an arc from Mesopotamia in the East to Egypt in the West, and is known by many as being ‘the cradle of civilisation’.  Here, several millennia ago, humans took their first steps in seed cultivation and the first farming techniques were developed, making Iraq the birthplace […]

“It’s not about me. It’s about every civilian who has been killed in Waziristan.” These are the words of Faheem Qureshi, speaking to The Guardian in 2016. Faheem was one of the first casualties in President Obama’s drone campaign when, seven years before, on 23 January, 2009, his family home in North Waziristan was hit […]

This report is part of AOAV’s investigation into the DoD’s small arms expenditure during the War on Terror.  For information on what a small arm is, please see here. To understand more about US DoD contracts visit here. The investigation also included an examination of US expenditure for small arms for Iraq, which can be read here, and Afghanistan, see […]

This article was originally published in Russia Today on 5 February 2015 The US Army’s use of explosive weapons in Fallujah, Iraq, had a disproportionally higher effect on Iraqi civilians than British military strategy in Basra, a new study into the effects of the coalition occupation has revealed. US forces were found to be responsible […]

The US has today launched an airstrike in Iraq. American officials say that 500-lb laser-guided bombs were dropped on mobile artillery used by Islamic militants in the north of the country. The decision to authorise air strikes was announced by President Obama on Thursday. The UK has welcomed the US decision but is ruling out […]

Miriam Pemberton is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, writing and speaking on demilitarization issues for its Foreign Policy In Focus project. AOAV met her to talk about her work. AOAV: What’s your main focus of interest in terms of your research? Miriam Pemberton: Demilitarisation of the economy. We’re at the beginning […]