Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Politics

Bush dismisses Iraqi death count

A study that uses statistics to reach a civilian toll since the U.S. invasion presents a figure far higher than other independent estimates.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 12, 2006

BAGHDAD - A controversial new study contends that more than 600,000 Iraqis have died in violence in the 3-year-old conflict in Iraq - more than 10 times higher than other independent estimates of the toll.

President Bush on Wednesday dismissed the study as "just not credible." It was to be published today on the Web site of the Lancet, a medical journal.

Bush, who in the past has suggested 30,000 civilian deaths in Iraq, would not give a figure for overall fatalities. "A lot of innocent people have lost their life," Bush said in Washington.

The study, a collaboration between Iraqi medical doctors and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, was not based on a body count. Its figures were statistically extrapolated from a survey of more than 1,800 Iraqi households. It found that, with a 95 percent certainty, from 426,369 to 793,663 Iraqis have died violently since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, with 601,027 the statistically most probable death toll.

The figures quickly raised skepticism.

"We affirm that these numbers are far from the truth and the Iraqi government is making efforts to protect the Iraqi citizen from forces of terror," Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said that it was difficult "with any certainty" to estimate Iraqi civilians casualties and that the department does everything possible to prevent them.

"We take great precautions in our military operations," he said. "That's in stark contrast to what the enemy in Iraq is doing. They take no such precautions. In fact, they deliberately target innocent civilians in their attacks."

An accurate count of total Iraqi deaths since the war's start has been difficult to obtain. According to an Associated Press tally, at least 13,414 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence through Tuesday since the new government took office on April 28, 2005. Of those, 9,300 were civilians.

The AP tally is compiled from hospital, police and military officials cited in news stories, as well as accounts from reporters and photographers at the scenes. The actual number is likely higher as many killings go unreported or uncounted.

A private group called Iraq Body Count says it has recorded 43,850 to 48,693 civilian Iraqi deaths. But it notes that those totals are based on media reports, which it says probably overlook "many if not most civilian casualties."

After a weekslong canvassing of Iraqi hospitals, morgues and government offices for death statistics, in June the Los Angeles Times reported 50,000 deaths.

Information from the Los Angeles Times was used in this report.

[Last modified October 12, 2006, 05:39:30]