Iraqis estimate their death toll: 150,000

In December, Bush put the number at 30,000, "more or less."

Published November 10, 2006 2:41PM (EST)

Before the elections in the United States this week, Iraqi government officials dismissed a study suggesting that more than 600,000 Iraqis have died in the war but couldn't or wouldn't put forth any estimates of their own.

Now they have.

During a visit to Austria Thursday, Iraqi Health Minister Ali al-Shemari told reporters that he believes 150,000 Iraqis have died in the war so far.

When George W. Bush was asked to estimate the number of Iraqi deaths in December, he put the number at "30,000, more or less." If the Iraqi estimates are right, Bush was either way, way off in December, or the war has grown exponentially more deadly for Iraqis since.


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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