The head of Fallujah's hospital said a day earlier that 600 Iraqis -- mostly civilians -- have been killed in the siege of the city.

Hospital director Rafie al-Issawi said most of the dead in Fallujah have been women, children and elderly. But he refused to give their exact numbers, saying that doing so would suggest that the remaining dead -- young, military-aged men -- were all insurgents, which he said is not the case.

Al-Issawi said that the number was compiled from registries of bodies received by the Fallujah General Hospital and four main clinics.

Kimmitt's comments were the first casualty statistics released by the military since a bloody uprising by a radical Shiite militia started April 4 and U.S. forces began their siege against Sunni insurgents in Fallujah the following day.

The Japan Times Weekly: April 17, 2004
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