BBC News is reporting the British government ignored the conclusions of its own experts when it dismissed a medical study estimating more than 650,000 Iraqis have died due to the Iraq War. The study appeared in the British medical journal The Lancet last year. Researchers based their findings on interviews with a random sampling of households taken in clusters across Iraq. In newly released memos, the chief scientific adviser at Britain’s Ministry of Defence called the researcher’s methods “close to best practice” and “robust.” Both the U.S. and Britain publicly rejected the study and criticized its methods.