655 000 Iraqis dead in war

2006-10-11 18:41

London - American and Iraqi public health experts have calculated that about 655 000 Iraqis have died as a result of the March 2003 US-led invasion and subsequent violence - far above previous estimates.

Researchers used household interviews rather than body counts to estimate how many more Iraqis had died because of the war than used to die annually in peacetime.

"We estimate that as a consequence of the coalition invasion of March 18 2003, about 655 000 Iraqis have died above the number that would be expected in a non-conflict situation," said Gilbert Burnham of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the United States.

That means 2.5% of the Iraqi population had died because of the invasion and ensuing strife, he said.

'Exaggerated'

Iraqi government spokesperson Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters: "The report is unbelievable. These numbers are exaggerated and not precise."

Iraqi government officials put the total Iraqi death toll since the war started in March 2003 at 40, 000.

The team's study - published online by the medical journal The Lancet - estimated pre-war deaths in Iraq at 143 000 a year and said Iraq's death rate is now 2½ times that of the pre-war period.

"... the combination of a long duration and tens of millions of people affected has made this the deadliest international conflict of the 21st century," Burnham said.

The survey was a follow-up to an earlier study which showed that nearly 100 000 more people than normal died in Iraq between March 2003 and September 2004.

All causes

The number of extra Iraqis who have died since March 2003 includes deaths from all causes - including those due to a rise in certain diseases and illnesses - the study said.

Nearly 60% of the dead were boys and men aged between 15 and 44.

"Of the deaths, we found an increasing proportion were due to car bombs, but the majority were due to gunfire," Burnham said in a teleconference.

- Reuters