Iraq Casualties Claimed Double Official Figures

[el Diario] Officially, the U.S. military says that just under 1,700 soldiers have died in Iraq so far. But that's less than half the tru figure, according to an inquiry by the Government of Puerto Rico regarding the total number of Puerto Rican war casualties.

On May 29 the Spanish-language daily newspaper El Diario/La Prensa reported that its independent review of military documents provided to the government of Puerto Rico put the number of deaths at 4,076.

El Diario/La Prensa's reviewed multiple documents, including official reports issued by the US Department of Defense, the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior and more than 230 battlefront reports.

Calculations are more difficult when it comes to the wounded, which US authorities number at more than 12,600, and medical discharges. In this category, large discrepancies in counts have been publicized, indicating the numbers of wounded and medical discharges are larger than those officially announced, reports the paper.