Up to 500,000 People May Die in Iraq If War Breaks out: Medact

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 13, 2002

Up to 500,000 People May Die in Iraq If War Breaks out: Medact

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As many as 500,000 people are likely to die -- most of them Iraqis -- if the United States launches a military attack in Iraq to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the British health professionals group Medact said Tuesday.

Medact, the British affiliate of the 1985 Nobel peace laureate International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, said in a report ''Collateral damage -- the health and environmental coasts of war on Iraq'' that a high proportion of the casualties from the allied attacks and chaos created in the aftermath of the war would be children and refugees.

The death could reach as high as 3.9 million if the event the conflict turns nuclear, the group said.

Medact is calling on the great powers should focus on weapons inspection or economic sanctions, warning that military action would acerbate the existing problem.

The estimates on the casualties were drawn on the assumption that the allied forces will first launch massive air raids on military targets in key Iraqi cities, followed by ground invasion on southern and northern Iraq and eventually the control of Baghdad, the group said.

Over a three-month period during and after the war, between 48,000 and 260,000 people could be killed, and a further 200,000 may die from deteriorating medical conditions.

Should a civil war occur, the group estimated, an additional 20,000 could be killed by conflicts.

Jane Salvage, the editor of the report said, compared with the 1991 Gulf war, casualties are expected to be far greater now the Iraqis are both mentally and physically battered and are capable of offering little resistance.

Source: Agencies

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