By Xinhua
Geneva : Around 151,000 Iraqis died violently in the three years following the U.S.-led invasion of their country in 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday.
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 U.S.-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.