(Image source from: The Week)

The study has found that about half a million people have died violently in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan due to the United States "war on terror" that was launched following the September 11 attacks in 2001.

The report released Thursday by Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs put the death toll at between 4,80,000 and 5,07,000 people - yet said the actual number is probably higher.

The new toll "is a more than 1,10,000 increase over the last count, issued just two years ago in August 2016," Brown said in a statement.

"Though the war on terror is often overlooked by the American public, press and lawmakers, the increased body count signals that, far from diminishing, this war remains intense."

The death toll includes insurgents, local police and security forces, civilians and the U.S. and allied troops.

The report's author, Neta Crawford, said many of those reported by the U.S. and local forces as militants may actually have been civilians.

"We may never know the total direct death toll in these wars," Crawford wrote.

"For example, tens of thousands of civilians may have died in retaking Mosul and other cities from ISIS but their bodies have likely not been recovered."

The report states that between 1,82,272 and 2,04,575 civilians have been killed in Iraq, 38,480 in Afghanistan, and 23,372 in Pakistan.

Approximately 7,000 U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The tally does not include all people who have died indirectly as a consequence of war, including through a loss of infrastructure or disease.

-Sowmya Sangam