151,000 Iraqis killed in three years since US-led invasion: WHO
10/1/2008 16:00
Around 151,000 Iraqis died violently in the three years following the
US-led invasion of their country in 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO)
said yesterday.
The estimate, which covers the period between March 2003 and
June 2006, is based on a large-scale national household survey conducted jointly
by the WHO and the Iraqi government, the WHO said in a statement.
Researchers
interviewed 9,345 households in nearly 1,000 neighborhoods and villages across
Iraq.
But despite the large size of the study, the researchers admit that
their estimate cannot be absolutely accurate. They suggest that the scope of the
death toll should be between 104,000 at the low end and 223,000 at the upper
end.
"Our survey estimate is three times higher than the death toll detected
through careful screening of media reports by the Iraq Body Count project and
about four times lower than a smaller-scale household survey conducted earlier
in 2006," said Naeema Al Gasseer, the WHO representative to Iraq.
The study
found violence became a leading cause of death for Iraqi adults after March 2003
and the main cause for men aged 15-59 years old.
It indicated that, on
average, 128 Iraqis died of violent causes per day in the first year following
the US-led invasion and that the number went down to 115 in the second year and
up again to 126 in the third year. More than half of the violent deaths occurred
in Baghdad.
Xinhua
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