stunning new death count emerged Thursday, as Iraq's health minister estimated 150,000 civilians have been killed in the war

Iraqi health minister: ‘150,000 civilians killed in war’ | By Steven Hurst | Associated Press

11/10/06 "AP" -- -- BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A stunning new death count emerged Thursday, as Iraq's health minister estimated 150,000 civilians have been killed in the war -- about three times previously accepted estimates.
...
Previous estimates of Iraq deaths held that 45,000 to 50,000 have been killed in the nearly 44-month-old conflict, according to partial figures from Iraqi institutions and media reports. No official count has ever been available.

Health Minister Ali Al-Shemari gave his new estimate of 150,000 to reporters during a visit to Vienna, Austria. He later told The Associated Press that he based the figure on an estimate of 100 bodies per day brought to morgues and hospitals -- though such a calculation would come out closer to 130,000 in total.

"It is an estimate," Al-Shemari said. He blamed Sunni insurgents, Wahhabis -- Sunni religious extremists -- and criminal gangs for the deaths.

Hassan Salem, of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, said the 150,000 figure included civilians, police and the bodies of people who were abducted, later found dead and collected at morgues run by the Health Ministry. SCIRI is Iraq's largest Shiite political organization and holds the largest number of seats in parliament.

In October, the British medical journal The Lancet published a controversial study contending nearly 655,000 Iraqis have died because of the war -- a far higher death toll than other estimates. The study, which was dismissed by President Bush and other US officials as not credible, was based on interviews of households and not a body count.

Al-Shemari disputed that figure Thursday.

"Since three and a half years, since the change of the Saddam regime, some people say we have 600,000 are killed. This is an exaggerated number. I think 150 [thousand] is okay," he said. ...