Around 100,000 civilians have died as a result of the allied invasion of Iraq in March last year, a study by public health experts revealed today.
They compared civilian mortality during the 14.6 months before the invasion with the 17.8 month period after it.
The researchers, led by Dr Les Roberts from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, conducted interviews with a total of 988 households from 33 randomly selected neighbourhoods.
In those households reporting violent deaths since January 2002, the date, cause and circumstances were recorded.
Overall, the risk of death was 2.5 times greater after the invasion, the team reported in a special on-line publication from the Lancetmedical journal.
The risk was 1.5 times higher if mortality around the hotspot of Falluja, where two thirds of violent deaths were reported, was excluded. This lower figure equated to an excess 98,000 deaths directly relating to the conflict, said the researchers. The estimate would be much higher if the Falluja data were added.
The risk of death from violence in the period after the invasion was 58 times higher than it was before the war. Before the invasion, the major causes of death were heart attack, stroke and chronic illness.
Violent deaths were reported in 15 of the 33 neighbourhoods surveyed, and were mainly attributed to the coalition forces. Most victims allegedly killed by coalition action were women and children.
The majority of victims were said to be women and children killed through military activity. A team of US and Iraqi researchers carried out the study last month by surveying clusters of households.