§ Mr. MacDougallTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will estimate the number of(a) civilian and (b) military lives lost in the conflict in Iraq; and if he will make a statement on the coalition's strategy to avoid civilian casualties. [105442]
§ Mr. IngramWe have no means of ascertaining the numbers of military or civilian lives lost during the conflict in Iraq to date, although we make every effort to keep any impact upon the Iraqi civilian population to an absolute minimum. All our military planning is conducted in full accordance with our obligations under international law to employ the minimum necessary use of force to achieve military effect, and to avoid injury to non-combatants or civilian infrastructure. Practically, this is achieved through a combination of an extremely careful targeting process and highly accurate precision guided weapons.