Controversial Report Prevails in Iraqi Death Toll Dispute

British officials won’t publicly question the results of a study that put the estimated Iraqi death toll at 655,000—that’s more than 500 deaths per day—since the beginning of the war.  The dispute over the study, published in The Lancet in October, centered on its methods and the large disparity between its estimates and Iraqi government figures.

BBC:

Iraqi Health Ministry figures put the toll at less than 10% of the total in the survey, published in the Lancet.

But the Ministry of Defence’s chief scientific adviser said the survey’s methods were “close to best practice” and the study design was “robust”.

Another expert agreed the method was “tried and tested”.

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