Letter to Blair calls for Iraq death probe

FORMER ambassadors, senior military figures and a bishop were among 44 signatories of an open letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday calling for an inquiry into the estimated 98,000 civilian deaths in Iraq.

The former assistant chief of defence staff Timothy Garden put his name to the appeal, alongside retired general Hugh Beach, ex-ambassador to Iraq Stephen Egerton and the Bishop of Coventry, Colin Bennetts.

The letter follows a study published in The Lancet in October which estimated the number of excess deaths in Iraq since the outbreak of hostilities in March last year at 98,000.