UN: Nearly 6,600 Iraqi civilians killed in July, August
Pastor Dale Morgan
UN: Nearly 6,600 Iraqi civilians killed in July, August*
September 21, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Violence killed nearly 6,600 Iraqi civilians
during July and August, while more than 8,000 were wounded, according to
a report released Wednesday by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq.
More than 20,600 Iraqi civilians have died in attacks so far this year,
according to UNAMI.
The carnage included a string of execution-style slayings, mortar and
rocket attacks as well as suicide bombings apparently targeting civilians.
Most of the killings detailed in the report released Wednesday happened
in Baghdad.
The data was based on information provided by Iraq's Ministry of Health
and the Baghdad morgue.
The report said a reduction in casualties in Baghdad between July and
August may reflect "a degree of improved security" as a result of
Operation Together Forward -- a security clampdown conducted by U.S. and
Iraqi forces in several city neighborhoods.
There were 2,884 civilians killed in Baghdad in July. In August, 2,222
people were killed, according to the report.
Last month, the U.S. military reported a dramatic drop in the number of
murders, but it has since said that its figures did not include people
killed by bombs, mortars or other mass attacks. (Full story)
The new U.N. report came on a day of suicide attacks, bombings and the
discovery of more bodies -- as well as the first day of the school year
for Iraq's children.(Full Story)
More violence
A suicide car bomber targeted the house of a tribal leader in Samarra
Wednesday afternoon, killing eight people -- including a child -- and
wounding 28, police said.
Earlier Wednesday, a suicide truck bomber detonated his explosives at
the entrance of an Iraqi police base Wednesday, killing four police
officers and wounding 11 more in Dora, a southern neighborhood in
Baghdad, Iraqi emergency police said.
In addition, three civilians were wounded.
A mortar attack in northeast Baghdad Wednesday also wounded four
civilians, police said.
Across the capital, police said they found 35 unidentified bodies in the
24-hour period ending at 6 a.m. Wednesday.
Police said they have found 227 bodies throughout the city in the past
seven days.
In addition, a U.S. soldier assigned to Multi-National Division-Baghdad
was killed Wednesday morning in northeastern Baghdad by small arms fire,
the U.S. military said. With the death, 2,689 U.S. military personnel,
including seven American civilian contractors, have died in the Iraq war.
A U.S. military spokesman pointed to a spike in murders and executions
in Baghdad during the past week and said it fits a pattern generally
seen before the holy month of Ramadan, which begins this weekend.
"That's obviously of great concern to everyone and something that's
being looked at carefully," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said Wednesday.
Attacks against American troops have also gone up since the call by al
Qaeda in Iraq's leader, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, to target U.S. forces, The
Associated Press quoted Caldwell as saying.
Near the northern city of Mosul, a double bombing killed 21 people, AP
reported.
A bomb in a parked car detonated Tuesday night near an Iraqi army base
in Sharqat, about 45 miles from Mosul, police told the AP. A suicide
bomber then set off his explosives as a crowd gathered.
The AP said 50 people were wounded in the bombings.
The violence Wednesday followed a similarly deadly day Tuesday when a
rocket attack on a Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad killed 10
people and wounded 19 Tuesday, police told the AP. (Details)
Military investigates deaths
The U.S. military is investigating the deaths of three U.S. soldiers in
separate noncombat incidents, the U.S. military announced Wednesday.
A member of the Multi-National Division-Baghdad died in Baghdad at
approximately 6 a.m. Wednesday. A soldier from the same division died at
approximately 9 p.m. Tuesday in southwest Baghdad, the military said.
Another soldier assigned to a medical task force team died in a
noncombat incident on Monday, according to the military.
New judge ejects Hussein
A day after the chief judge in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial was
forced to step down, his replacement ejected the former Iraqi leader
from the courtroom for arguing and refusing to sit down. (Watch the
testy exchange between the judge and Hussein -- 3:09)
Hussein's defense attorneys walked out of the courtroom to protest the
judge change.
Other developments
# A suspected al Qaeda operative Wednesday pleaded not guilty in a
Jordanian court to charges of killing and plotting terrorist acts in
Iraq, Reuters reported. "You're destined for hell and our destiny is
heaven," Reuters quoted Ziyad Karbouli as saying Wednesday. Karbouli
confessed on television in May to killing a Jordanian driver in Iraq,
but defense lawyers argue such confessions could be made under duress.
# None of the death squad members detained in the past month had ties to
the Ministry of Interior or other government agencies, AP quoted Maj.
Gen. Joseph E. Peterson as saying Wednesday. The U.S. general in charge
of training Iraq's police forces said, however, that the Mehdi Army
Militia of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was one group from which death
squad members appear to have been recruited.