Baghdad - More than 8,000 Iraqis died during May as a result of the UN embargo, bringing to 1,309,153 the number of victims of the sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the health ministry said yesterday.
"Some 5,562 children under the age of five years died in May, mainly of acute diarrhoea, respiratory problems and malnutrition," the ministry said. "Some 2,904 adults died of cardiac illnesses, hypertension, diabetes and malignant tumours, taking to 8,466 the total number of victims in May," it added.