Some 11,000 Iraqis die in December, 2000 of the siege

Iraq stressed on Thursday that the sanctions imposed on the Iraqi people resulted in the spread of diseases that caused the death of more than 11,000 persons mostly children since December 2000.

In a statement, the Iraqi ministry of health said that some 8182 Iraqi children under five year old died because of the spread of diseases resulted from the lack of nutrition, diarrhea and others in comparison with 299 deaths cases reported for the same period of 1989.