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.