A new study revealed that almost 500,000 Iraqis including men, women, and children have died during the U.S-led war between 2003 and 2011.
Amy Hagopian, lead author of the study and an associate professor of global health at the University of Washington, and her colleagues are behind the first study published since 2006 talking about the controversy and estimate of the total number of fatalities during the war that ended the reign of former President Saddam Hussein.
The researchers concluded that roughly 461,000 Iraqis lost their lives during the war. The number of fatalities not related to the war was already excluded on the calculation. However, they admitted that their study is partial because they missed to get health and census records from Iraq. The data they used was from the local public health officials' assessment as well as statements from the family and relatives of the deceased.
According to the study, at least 60 percent of the fatalities were linked to violence. The remaining 40 percent was linked to secondary causes such as shattered infrastructure, high level of stress, lack of medical care, thirst and hunger.
"War causes a huge amount of chaos, disruption and havoc," Hagopian wrote. "Some deaths are direct, but there are also deaths that result from destroyed infrastructure, increased stress, inability to get medical care, poor water, and poor access to food.... These are all reasons why people die."
Deaths caused by violence were also listed based on the contributors. About 35 percent was done by coalition forces or the U.S army, 32 percent by sectarian militias or state army, and 11 percent by criminals.
Only 12 percent of the fatalities were caused by bombings but most died of gunshots which are 63 percent of the account.
About 2,000 randomly selected houses were visited by the researchers to get valuable information which they admitted was extremely tough.
"One of the problems clearly is that we're asking people to remember a very long period of time," Hagopian said to L.A Times. "There can be a lot of forgetting, and that forgetting will be in favor of a lower count."
The study was published in the online journal PLOS Medicine.
