Gulf War veterans are committing suicide at a greater rate than Services personnel who took no part in the 1991 conflict, the latest Ministry of Defence statistics disclosed yesterday.

Between April 1, 1991, and December 31, 2007, 162 Gulf veterans died “due to intentional self-harm” or from other incidents where the intent was unclear, leading to open verdicts at inquests.

The latest figures appear to back up the case of campaigners seeking compensation from the MoD for Gulf veterans who have suffered traumas since the conflict ended.

The 162 deaths compare with 144 recorded among a similar group of men and women who were serving in the Armed Forces in 1991 but were not sent to the Gulf.

The figures, published by the Defence Analytical Services Agency (Dasa), are based on the mortality rates of the 53,409 personnel who took part in the Gulf War, and a comparison group of a similar age, gender, rank and regular/reserve status.

Although the suicide rate is higher among Gulf veterans, the Dasa figures do not appear to provide statistical support for the campaigners’ overall case that the 1991 war was directly responsible for a range of illnesses which have affected several thousand former servicemen and women.

Since the war, many veterans who have fallen ill have blamed the cocktail of vaccines given to all frontline units, and other factors such as the toxic pesticides used to kill bugs on the army tents and leaks of Iraqi chemical warfare products. The illnesses were originally termed Gulf War Syndrome, but the MoD, having carried out numerous research studies, has found no evidence to support the syndrome claim.

The Dasa figures revealed that there were 918 deaths among the Gulf veterans since April 1991, compared with 958 among the comparison group.

Dasa said that there were no statistically significant differences in the total number of deaths between the Gulf veterans and the comparison group.

“[However] there were fewer disease-related deaths among the Gulf veterans than the comparison group,” Dasa said.

As an example, there were 154 deaths due to disease of the circulatory system among Gulf veterans compared with 179 in the other group; and there were 5 deaths from motor neurone disease among the veterans compared with an estimated 6.

Dasa also charted the increase in the death rate in the Armed Forces last year, which was largely due to the deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last year, a total of 201 deaths occurred in the Armed Forces of which 27 were in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, 143 in the Army and 31 in the Royal Air Force. The single largest cause was death as a result of hostile action — 71 deaths or 35 per cent of the total. The second largest cause was transport accidents — 50 deaths or 25 per cent of the total. Suicides last year accounted for 7 deaths.

During the period from 1998 to 2007, the overall Armed Forces mortality rates fluctuated between a low of 66 per 100,000 in 1999 to a high of 105 per 100,000 last year.

In 2003 and 2004 there were increases in the number of deaths in the Royal Navy due to three helicopter incidents involving multiple deaths during operations in the Middle East.

The increase in army fatality rates from 94 per 100,000 in 2006 to 128 per 100,000 last year was mainly accounted for by operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. There were 86 lives lost last year, 71 as a result of hostile action, compared with 67 lives lost — 47 from enemy action — in 2006.

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