IRAQ-JORDAN BORDER (AP) -- Bombed-out cars on highways. Mothers weeping over dead children. A small boy seemingly asleep, the back of his head blown off.
Evidence of civilian casualties is not hard to find in Iraq, but as fierce fighting rages in the south and Baghdad is battered by bombs, nobody can count them.
The Iraqi government reports 194 civilian dead. The Red Cross says it can vouch for 14, but there could be many more. A Web site that compiles Western news media reports says between 199 and 278 are reported dead.
The reality is that none of these figures are complete or accurate.
"There are no solid figures on civilian casualties," Geoffrey Keele, UNICEF's spokesman for Iraq, said Tuesday in Amman, Jordan.
U.S. officials say they are taking great pains to avoid killing civilians. Iraqi officials mock their assertions, and are largely succeeding in convincing large parts of the world that the war is targeting innocents.
As for overall figures, however, there is little information.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says it has counted 14 dead and 110 injured since Sunday in airstrikes on Baghdad. It has no figures for other parts of the country.
"We usually don't give casualty figures unless they're the result of our immediate observation," said Muin Kassis of the Red Cross in Amman.
In the southern city of Basra, where U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe, Kassis said: "We have no accurate account of casualties."
The Web site www.IraqBodyCount.net, which compiles news reports, gives a minimum count on civilian casualties of 199, and a maximum of 278. The range is due to conflicting reports.
