Follow
Please add the profiles of those known or thought to be a civilian casualty of a bomb / IED.
Bombs & other explosive devices are becoming more frequent causes of death in todays world. Many types of explosive weapons exist, and many are in use by military forces, armed groups and extremist, who make their own bombs. Bombs may be delivered by many different mechanisms and intentions: car, boat, animal (monkeys & pigs were used around 1000 AD and anti-tank dogs and bat bombs were developed during WWII), collar, suicide, surgically implanted, robot, tunnel, improvised rocket, or improvised mortar. Trigger mechanisms include: wire, radio, mobile phone, victim-operated, infrared light beams,
An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mechanism. IEDs are commonly used as roadside bombs. It is fabricated in an improvised manner incorporating destructive, lethal, noxious, pyrotechnic, or incendiary chemicals and designed to destroy or incapacitate personnel or vehicles. In some cases, IEDs are used to distract, disrupt, or delay an opposing force, facilitating another type of attack. IEDs may incorporate military or commercially sourced explosives, and often combine both types, or they may otherwise be made with homemade explosives (HME).
- More than 53,000 civilians were killed or injured by IEDs between 2011 and 2013. Civilian casualties from suicide bombings went up by more than a third and attacks by car bombs increased by more than 200%. Civilians accounted for more than 80% of those killed or injured.
Strategic bombing is the use of airpower to destroy industrial and economic infrastructures, such as factories, oil refineries, railroads, or nuclear power plants, rather than just directly targeting military bases, supply depots, or enemy combatants. It may also include the intent to dehouse, demoralize or inflict civilian casualties, and thus hinder them from supporting the enemy’s war effort. See: Wikipedia -- Civilian casualties of strategic bombing This site includes estimated death toll for the following:
- Spanish Civil War (18 Jul 1936 - 1 Apr 1939)
- Second Sino-Japanese War (7 Jul 1937 - 1 Sep 1939, merged into WWII on 1 Sep 1939)
- WWII (1 Sep1939 - 2 Sep 1945)
- 1991 Gulf War (2 Aug 1990 – 28 Feb 1991)
- NATO bombing of Yugoslavia (1999)
- Second Chechen War (1999 – 2009)
- Libyan Civil War (20111)
The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- There has been great difficulty in estimating the total casualties in the Japanese cities as a result of the atomic bombing. The extensive destruction of civil installations (hospitals, fire and police department, and government agencies) the state of utter confusion immediately following the explosion, as well as the uncertainty regarding the actual population before the bombing, contribute to the difficulty of making estimates of casualties. The Japanese periodic censuses are not complete. Finally, the great fires that raged in each city totally consumed many bodies.
From Afghanistan to Iraq, Libya to Syria, Yemen and elsewhere, the use of explosive weapons in populated areas is a major cause of civilian deaths and injuries. In 2018, an estimated 20,384 civilians were reported killed and injured by the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.
Notables who died as a result of a bomb:
- Wikipedia – Deaths by car bomb (33 listed as of 2/26/20)
- Yaakov Alperon (Hebrew: יעקב אלפרון; February 18, 1955 – November 17, 2008) was an Israeli mobster, head of the Alperon criminal family (car bomb assassination)
- Sofía Ester Cuthbert Chiarleoni (Iquique, 28 November 1918 – Buenos Aires, 30 September 1974) was the wife of the Chilean military Carlos Prats, murdered along with him in Argentina by the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional, within the framework of Operation Condor. (car bomb)
- Milan Levar (c. 1954 – 28 August 2000) was a Croatian whistleblower, a former officer in the Croatian army. (car bomb)
- Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave, DSO, OBE, MC, TD (23 January 1916 – 30 March 1979) was a British soldier, lawyer and Member of Parliament. (car bomb)
- Barbara Annette Robbins (July 26, 1943 – March 30, 1965) was an American secretary employed by the Central Intelligence Agency. (car bomb) (Find A Grave Memorial 71682969 & Wikipedia – Barbara Robbins)
- In Lakeview, Oregon, Mrs. Elsie Mitchell and five neighborhood children, Edward Engen, Sherman Shoemaker, Jay Gifford, and Richard and Ethel Patzke, are killed while attempting to drag a Japanese balloon out the woods in May 1945.
References & Additional Reading:
- Wikipedia - Civilian casualties of strategic bombing
- Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- History - Six killed in Oregon by Japanese bomb. 5 May 1945
- OCHA – Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas
- Wikipedia – Improvised explosive device
- The Lancet study 2011 – Casualties of suicide bombings in Iraq 2003-2010
- Commondreams.org – The Alarming Rise of Civilian Deaths in the War on Terror. By Phyllis Bennis, Published on 10 May 2019 by Foreign Policy in Focus
- Targeting Civilians
- Amnesty International – Afghanistan: Mosque bombing, mounting civilian casualties demand world’s attention. 18 Oct 2019
Jump back to: Cause of death portal