"But while the Pentagon claims that DU poses no significant health risk, Iraqi doctors have long claimed that the numbers of cancer cases and birth defects have increased dramatically since the war, and that the increase is due to the use of DU munitions.[7] Kudhim Ali, an oncologist at a cancer clinic in Basra, said in 1998 that �Since 1991 the number of cancer cases has increased five to six times over what it was.�[8] Abdel Karim Hassan Sabr, deputy director of the Hospital for Maternity and Children in Basra reported that the rate of birth defects at the hospital rose from 1.8 percent in 1993 to more than 4 percent by 2001."