Iraq conflict has killed a million,
says survey
Reuters North American News Service
http://wiredispatch.com/, January 30, 2008
More than one million Iraqis have died as a result of the conflict
in their country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according
to research conducted by one of Britain's leading polling groups.
The survey, conducted by Opinion Research Business (ORB) with
2,414 adults in face-to-face interviews, found that 20 percent
of people had had at least one death in their household as a result
of the conflict, rather than natural causes.
The last complete census in Iraq conducted in 1997 found 4.05
million households in the country, a figure ORB used to calculate
that approximately 1.03 million people had died as a result of
the war, the researchers found.
The margin of error in the survey, conducted in August and September
2007, was 1.7 percent, giving a range of deaths of 946,258 to
1.12 million.
ORB originally found that 1.2 million people had died, but decided
to go back and conduct more research in rural areas to make the
survey as comprehensive as possible and then came up with the
revised figure.
The research covered 15 of Iraq's 18 provinces. Those that not
covered included two of Iraq's more volatile regions -- Kerbala
and Anbar -- and the northern province of Arbil, where local authorities
refused them a permit to work.
Estimates of deaths in Iraq have been highly controversial in
the past.
Medical journal The Lancet published a peer-reviewed report in
2004 stating that there had been 100,000 more deaths than would
normally be expected since the March 2003 invasion, kicking off
a storm of protest.
The widely watched Web site Iraq Body Count currently estimates
that between 80,699 and 88,126 people have died in the conflict,
although its methodology and figures have also been questioned
by U.S. authorities and others.
ORB, a non-government-funded group founded in 1994, conducts research
for the private, public and voluntary sectors.
The director of the group, Allan Hyde, said it had no objective
other than to record as accurately as possible the number of deaths
among the Iraqi population as a result of the invasion and ensuing
conflict. (Reporting by Luke Baker; editing by Andrew Roche)
Iraq page
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