The projection compares with previous estimates of 10,000 to 30,000 civilian deaths.

Designed by public health scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and carried out by teams of Iraqi doctors, the study attributed most of the deaths to military actions by coalition forces.

The findings appeared Oct. 28 on the Web site of The Lancet, a leading British medical journal.

The scientists said the dead civilians -- mostly women and children -- were largely the unintended victims of airstrikes, shellings and other coalition actions against enemy forces.

Michael O'Hanlon, a defense analyst for the Brookings Institution, a liberal-leaning think tank in Washington, disputed the findings, terming them "preposterous and politically driven."

For the past year and a half, Brookings has been working on the question and has calculated that fewer than 10,000 Iraqi civilians have died from acts of war since March 2003, when the U.S.-led coalition invaded.

The Brookings figures, which are continually updated, are based on morgue statistics in Iraq as well as numbers provided by the Iraqi Ministry of Health and news reports, he said.

The Japan Times Weekly: Nov. 6, 2004
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