VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The stunning revelations that postinvasion Iraqi deaths are three to 10 times higher than any previous estimates will be a major embarrassment for the Bush administration.
The revelations come from the first scientific survey of the postinvasion death toll among Iraqis, which was published last month on the Web site of the influential British medical journal The Lancet. The researchers, led by Johns Hopkins epidemiologist Dr. Les Roberts, surveyed almost 1,000 households in 33 Iraqi neighborhoods across Iraq.
The findings were striking. Roberts' team estimates that some 98,000 additional people have died since the invasion. And, unlike wars elsewhere, most of the "excess" deaths are from violence, not disease or malnutrition.