1.2 Million Dead

1.2 million dead

A recent poll suggests that upwards of a million people may have been killed in Iraq since the beginning of the 2003 invasion, including 116,000 killed by aerial bombing.

The poll, conducted 12 – 19 Aug by Opinion Business Research (ORB, a polling company believed to have conducted past polls for the MoD) and barely reported in the British press, found that 22% of Iraqi households had had one (16%), two (5%) of three (1%) members die ‘as a result of the conflict in Iraq since 2003’ (tinyurl.com/2xlygm).

Using data from a 2005 census, ORB calculated that over 1.2 million Iraqis had been killed since the start of the invasion. 52.1% (636,000) were killed by gunshots, 21.6% (264,000) by car bombs and 9.5% (116,000) by aerial bombardment. A further 1.1 million were estimated to have suffered injuries ‘as a result of the conflict.’

Together with the results of the 2006 survey published in the Lancet (which was described by the MoD’s chief scientific adviser as ‘employing methods … regarded as “close to best practice” in this area’ – see Voices 53), the ORB poll suggests that tens of thousands of Iraqis have died as result of air strikes since July 2006.