Staggering numbers of wives lost their husbands after the U.S. invasion.
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A staggering number of wives in Iraq lost their husbands in the years of violence following the U.S. invasion in 2003, a study released Sunday showed. The Los Angeles-based Relief International found that 1.5 million of the estimated 15 million Iraqi women are widows, and three out of every five of them were widowed during the war. The study warned that ignoring their suffering could lead them to prostitution, drugs, and terrorism. "The Iraqi state has neglected the widows with their enormous problems, and the solutions lie in the establishing of bodies to take care of and solve the problems of these women," the report said.