During eight years of war begun by the United States, more than 100,000 civilians died in Iraq, according to research by two American academics.

Two public health professors, Barry Levy of Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston and Victor Sidel of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, reviewed numerous studies in journals, as well as reports by government agencies, international organizations and the media. They concluded that at least 116,000 Iraqi civilians and more than 4,800 coalition troops died between the invasion in March 2003 and the U.S. withdrawal in December 2011.

The civilian fatalities included those killed in the fighting and others who became ill as a result of nation’s crippled infrastructure (water, sanitation, electricity). Iraqi civilians area still dying if war-related causes. According to IraqBodyCount.org, that included 345 in January 2013.

Also, they estimated that about five million Iraqis were displaced by the war.

The study estimated the financial cost to the U.S. from the war was at least $810 billion, and could go as high as $3 trillion once the government finishes paying off the interest from its war-related debt.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Iraq War Killed 120,000, Cost $800 Bln, Study Estimates (Agence-France Press)

Documented Civilian Deaths From Violence (Iraq Body Count.org)

Cost of U.S. Wars: $4 Trillion and 225,000 Dead (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)