<p>The latest leaked documents chronicling the Iraq war from 2004 to 2009 provide a new picture of how many Iraqi civilians were killed, open a new window on the role that Iran played in supporting Iraqi militants and give many accounts of abuse by Iraqi army and police, said 'The New York Times', one of the news organisations which got early access to the papers.<br /><br />WikiLeaks, which released the papers despite Pentagon's warning that it could endanger informants and reveal war strategy, called the document drop "the largest classified military leak in history."<br /><br />In a news release, the group said the documents detail 109,032 deaths in Iraq, encompassing 66,081 civilians, 23,984 insurgents, 15,196 Iraqi government forces and 3,771 coalition forces, according to the classifications used by the US military.<br />The Pentagon strongly condemned the unauthorised disclosure of classified information contained in 392,000 documents.<br /><br />"...'significant activities' reports (in the leaked documents) are initial, raw observations by tactical units," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters.<br /><br />"They are essentially snapshots of events, both tragic and mundane, and do not tell the whole story. That said, the period covered by these reports has been well-chronicled in news stories, books and films and the release of these field reports does not bring new understanding to Iraq's past," Morrell said.<br /><br />The Pentagon had established a task force that had been combing through the Iraq data base to assess the damage that a Wikileaks publication of the significant activity reports could pose to the US military, Iraqi allies and ongoing operations.<br /><br />Morrell said the US Central Command is reaching out to more than 300 Iraqis it feels are at significant risk for reprisal after their names were exposed within documents.<br />He said thousands of names were exposed, yet these 300 or more are at higher risk.<br />WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange told CNN that the new round of field reports shows "compelling evidence of war crimes" committed by forces of the US-led coalition and the Iraqi government.<br /><br />According to the NYT, hundreds of reports of beatings, burnings and lashings suggested that "such treatment was not an exception."<br /><br />Earlier this year, WikiLeaks had released 92,000 Afghan war-related documents.</p>
<p>The latest leaked documents chronicling the Iraq war from 2004 to 2009 provide a new picture of how many Iraqi civilians were killed, open a new window on the role that Iran played in supporting Iraqi militants and give many accounts of abuse by Iraqi army and police, said 'The New York Times', one of the news organisations which got early access to the papers.<br /><br />WikiLeaks, which released the papers despite Pentagon's warning that it could endanger informants and reveal war strategy, called the document drop "the largest classified military leak in history."<br /><br />In a news release, the group said the documents detail 109,032 deaths in Iraq, encompassing 66,081 civilians, 23,984 insurgents, 15,196 Iraqi government forces and 3,771 coalition forces, according to the classifications used by the US military.<br />The Pentagon strongly condemned the unauthorised disclosure of classified information contained in 392,000 documents.<br /><br />"...'significant activities' reports (in the leaked documents) are initial, raw observations by tactical units," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters.<br /><br />"They are essentially snapshots of events, both tragic and mundane, and do not tell the whole story. That said, the period covered by these reports has been well-chronicled in news stories, books and films and the release of these field reports does not bring new understanding to Iraq's past," Morrell said.<br /><br />The Pentagon had established a task force that had been combing through the Iraq data base to assess the damage that a Wikileaks publication of the significant activity reports could pose to the US military, Iraqi allies and ongoing operations.<br /><br />Morrell said the US Central Command is reaching out to more than 300 Iraqis it feels are at significant risk for reprisal after their names were exposed within documents.<br />He said thousands of names were exposed, yet these 300 or more are at higher risk.<br />WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange told CNN that the new round of field reports shows "compelling evidence of war crimes" committed by forces of the US-led coalition and the Iraqi government.<br /><br />According to the NYT, hundreds of reports of beatings, burnings and lashings suggested that "such treatment was not an exception."<br /><br />Earlier this year, WikiLeaks had released 92,000 Afghan war-related documents.</p>