Iraq's health ministry said yesterday that between 100,000 and 150,000 people have been killed since the 2003 US-led invasion, after earlier presenting the higher figure.
Health Minister Ali al-Shamari was quoted in the media on Thursday in Vienna as saying that 150,000 people had died since the invasion.
An official with the ministry also confirmed the figure yesterday, but later said that the estimated deaths ranged between 100,000 and 150,000.
"The minister was misquoted. He said between 100,000-150,000 people were killed in three-and-a-half years," the official said.
"These were killed during military confrontations, assassinations and sectarian assassinations," the official said, adding that between 70 and 80 people were dying in violence each day.
He said the ministry had started keeping records in early 2004, effectively meaning that those killed during the actual invasion and in the ensuing months were not included in this figure.
Al-Shemari said on Thursday that he based his figure on an estimate of 100 bodies per day brought to morgues and hospitals -- though such a calculation would come out closer to 130,000 in total.
"It is an estimate," he said.
He blamed Sunni insurgents, Wahhabis -- Sunni religious extremists -- and criminal gangs for the deaths.
Hassan Salem, of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) said the 150,000 figure included civilians, police and the bodies of people who were abducted, later found dead and collected at morgues run by the Health Ministry.
SCIRI is Iraq's largest Shiite political organization and holds the largest number of seats in parliament.
The number of dead has been a controversial topic of repeated speculation. Most estimates, such as those by the Iraq Body Count project, have put the figure at between 50,000 and 60,000.
Last month the British medical journal The Lancet published a report estimating that 650,000 people had actually died since the invasion, based on extrapolations from people interviewed.
The figure has been dismissed as wildly exaggerated by the Iraqi government, press agencies and the US military, which itself will not release data on civilian casualties in Iraq.
Iraq's health ministry is controlled by supporters of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and has often been accused by US authorities of exaggerating casualty counts.
Meanwhile, the head of the Baghdad central morgue said on Thursday he was receiving as many as 60 violent death victims each day at his facility alone.
Dr. Abdul-Razzaq al-Obaidi said those deaths did not include victims of violence whose bodies were taken to the city's many hospital morgues or those who were removed from attack scenes by relatives and quickly buried according to Muslim custom.
He said the morgue had received 1,600 violent death victims last month.
US forces suffered 105 deaths last month.
DEFENSE: The first set of three NASAMS that were previously purchased is expected to be delivered by the end of this year and deployed near the capital, sources said Taiwan plans to procure 28 more sets of M-142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), as well as nine additional sets of National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), military sources said yesterday. Taiwan had previously purchased 29 HIMARS launchers from the US and received the first 11 last year. Once the planned purchases are completed and delivered, Taiwan would have 57 sets of HIMARS. The army has also increased the number of MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) purchased from 64 to 84, the sources added. Each HIMARS launch pod can carry six Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, capable of
Tropical Storm Podul strengthened into a typhoon at 8pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with a sea warning to be issued late last night or early this morning. As of 8pm, the typhoon was 1,020km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving west at 23kph. The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA said. Based on the tropical storm’s trajectory, a land warning could be issued any time from midday today, it added. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said Podul is a fast-moving storm that is forecast to bring its heaviest rainfall and strongest
GET TO SAFETY: Authorities were scrambling to evacuate nearly 700 people in Hualien County to prepare for overflow from a natural dam formed by a previous typhoon Typhoon Podul yesterday intensified and accelerated as it neared Taiwan, with the impact expected to be felt overnight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, while the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration announced that schools and government offices in most areas of southern and eastern Taiwan would be closed today. The affected regions are Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi City, and Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as the outlying Penghu County. As of 10pm last night, the storm was about 370km east-southeast of Taitung County, moving west-northwest at 27kph, CWA data showed. With a radius of 120km, Podul is carrying maximum sustained
TRAJECTORY: The severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday, and would influence the nation to varying degrees, a forecaster said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it would likely issue a sea warning for Tropical Storm Podul tomorrow morning and a land warning that evening at the earliest. CWA forecaster Lin Ting-yi (林定宜) said the severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving west at 21kph and packing sustained winds of 108kph and gusts of up to 136.8kph, the CWA said. Lin said that the tropical storm was about 1,710km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, with two possible trajectories over the next one
RSS