A lot of times in Iraq, we hear the Military give a casualty number that is low, and another source (local officials, witnesses, etc.) say that the casualties of whatever action the U.S. took will say that it is much higher.
Now, normally, if given the choice, I wouldn't say that there is a good reason to believe the numbers that come out of any random source in Iraq. For example, when the U.S. destroyed Fallujah, the first thing the U.S. did was take the hospital, because the army insisted that if they didn't, then inflated casualty reports would start coming out. Instead, there were almost no reports of the numbers of civilian casualties from Fallujah.
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