Local Editor

A research has for the first time concluded that the sharp rise in birth defects and genetic damage could have been caused by weaponry used in US assaults that took place six years ago.

According to the Study conducted by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, which will be published next week, birth defects, with prevalence of congenital heart defects and neural tube defects have reached in 2010 unprecedented numbers.

The researchers found malformations are close to 11 times higher than normal rates, and rose to unprecedented levels in the first half of this year - a period that had not been surveyed in earlier reports.

According to a study on the deliveries in only one hospital, the Fallujah General Hospital in May 2010, over 15% of deliveries (547) presented birth defects. In the same period, 11% of babies were born at less than 30 weeks and 14% of fetuses spontaneously aborted.

The parents' exposure to war-contaminants which is the direct reason behind the birth of malformed children, according to the study, is impairing the population's health and its capacity to care for the surviving children, said the study.

The findings, which will be published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, come prior to a much-anticipated World Health Organization study of Falluja's genetic health.

The findings are likely to prompt further speculation that the defects were caused by depleted uranium rounds, which were heavily used in two large battles in the city in April and November 2004.

The researchers believe that the figures understate what they describe as an epidemic of abnormalities, because a large number of babies in Falluja are born at home with parents reluctant to seek help from authorities.