IRAQ: Iraq people react to a US public health study which estimates 655,000 Iraqis were killed in the country since 2003

Iraqi people said on Thursday (October 12) that the death toll of Iraqis killed in Iraq since the invasion of the United States is bigger than that mentioned in the study of a US experts, stressing on the fact that chaos and disorder were brought to Iraq with the arrival of Americans. "As for the death tolls that the US forces declared since the invasion of Iraq and until now is considered a very little toll of Iraqis killed (in this period). America did not bring liberty and democracy to Iraq but it brings death with it instead," said Saleh Mehdi, an Iraqi citizen. Another Iraqi citizen, Mohammed Rahim said, "Americans give 655,000 Iraqi killed since the invasion and until now, the death toll is bigger. They entered Iraq on the basis of liberating it but now they sow troubles among Iraqis. During this time between a year and a year and a half, there were many blasts and daily killings. Hundreds of people were killed in streets. What did those people do?". A study prepared by a US public health experts on Wednesday (October 11) said that about 655,000 Iraqis have died from the 3-1/2-year-old Iraq war, far more than previously estimated. President George W. Bush dismissed as not credible. The U.S. and Iraqi researchers used household interviews rather than body counts to estimate how many more Iraqis have died because of the war than died annually before the war. Deaths are occurring in Iraq at more than three times the rate before the invasion in March 2003, said researcher Gilbert Burnham of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland. The study published in the medical journal The Lancet estimated pre-war deaths at 143,000 a year. Researchers estimated that as a result of the war, about 655,000 people in a country of about 27 million have died above the number expected to have died without war. That means 2.5 percent of the Iraqi population has died because of the invasion and ensuing strife, Burnham said. At a White House news conference Bush said that he does not consider it a credible report. Earlier, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to dispute the study's estimate and said it was difficult to count civilian deaths. Whitman said the Iraqi health ministry is best positioned to come up with such figures. Last December, Bush estimated 30,000 Iraqis had died in the war. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters, "The report is unbelievable. These numbers are exaggerated and not precise. "We (the government) has no idea about this astronomic numbers. These numbers are exaggerated and not precise . The Iraqi government denied this big numbers and hope from the (international) institutions who wants to visit Iraq (to come) and investigate the truth and accuracy as well as contacting the Iraqi government," he said. He made it clear that most of the killings happened in Iraq are resulted by terrorist attacks. "These killings are resulted by terrorist attacks, which are supported by groups from outside Iraq, countries, organisations and members," al- Dabagh added. Iraq has been gripped by sectarian bloodletting since the bombing of a revered Shi'ite shrine in February. The United Nations estimates 100 Iraqis die every day in violence that Iraqi and U.S. officials fear could descend into civil war.

ITN Source | October 13, 2006

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