A new medical study says the number of Iraqi deaths since the US-led invasion has reached more than 655,000. The study was carried out by many of the same researchers behind the Johns Hopkins University survey that put the death toll at 100,000 two years ago. Researchers based their findings on interviews with a random sampling of households taken in clusters across Iraq. The newest survey yielded the same estimate of immediate post-invasion deaths as the first one. Attacks from US-led coalition forces accounted for thirty percent of the reported deaths. The actual number of dead could be higher. The 655,000 figure represents an estimate of “excess deaths” — people who wouldn’t have died had the US not invaded.

The study is already coming under criticism. Anthony Cordesman, an analyst with the Center for Strategic & International Studies said the researchers were playing politics ahead of the November mid-term elections. In response, University of Michigan professor and Middle East scholar Juan Cole wrote: “Is he saying that 18,000 households from all over Iraq conspired to lie to Johns Hopkins University researchers for the purpose of defeating Republicans in US elections this November?”.