The report put the death toll of the U.S.'s so-called 'war against terror' between 480,000 and 507,000.
Over half a million civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan were killed in the aftermath of the U.S.’s so-called “war against terror” launched in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks under the pretext of fighting al-Qaeda and the ensuing invasion of Iraq to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein, according to a recently published study.
The report, however, did not include deaths that were caused by damage to infrastructure or the spread of disease, which were direct results of the war.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan have been killed in the wake of the so-called "war on terror" launched by the U.S. following the 9/11 attacks, according to the study.
The report, which was published on Saturday by Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, put the death toll between 480,000 and 507,000.
“Many of the casualties considered as ‘militants’ by the U.S. could have actually been civilians,” according to Neta Crawford, who penned the study, acknowledging that the number of people killed is an "undercount" due to limitations in reporting and "great uncertainty in any count of killing in war"
Over ten million civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan were forced to flee their homes in the invasion, which is estimated to have cost the U.S. over 5.6 trillion dollars.
According to a statement made by the institute behind the report, “The war on terror is frequently ignored by American public opinion, press and politicians, despite the fact that the death toll is mounting, which shows the war is not winding down. It demonstrates the opposite, that the war is actually intensifying and ongoing.”
