US News

El Kabong · Guest

The United Nations has rebuked Iraq's government for refusing to disclose
the politically sensitive civilian casualty figures in what it calls a
"rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070602/ts_nm/iraq_dc_1;_ylt=AiChl3lC290NMUpV0VAPLMYE1vAI

Civilian death toll in Iraq spikes in May

By Mussab Al-Khairalla

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The number of civilians killed in
Iraq jumped to nearly 2,000 in May, the highest monthly toll since the start
of a U.S.-backed security crackdown in February, according to figures
released on Saturday.

Militants blew up a strategic bridge that links Baghdad to the northern
cities of Kirkuk and Arbil, and a mortar barrage on the Sunni enclave of
Fadhil in mainly Shi'ite eastern Baghdad, killed 10 people and wounded 30,
police said.

In Arbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Iraqi Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Masoud Barzani, president of Kurdistan, urged
Turkey not to send troops into the region to crush Kurdish separatist rebels
believed to be hiding there.

An Interior Ministry official, who did not want to be named because he was
not authorized to release the figures, said 1,944 civilians were killed in
May, a 29 percent hike over April. At least 174 soldiers and policemen were
killed in the same period.

The death toll was based on statistics compiled by Iraq's ministries of
interior, defense and health on the number of people killed and wounded in
attacks in Iraq.

After three months of declines, there has been a sharp rise in the number of
sectarian murders in Baghdad. Mortar attacks in the capital are becoming
deadlier and car bombs remain common.

At least 20 people were killed and dozens injured in two mortar attacks on
Shi'ite and Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad in the past 48 hours. In
Saturday's attack, 10 people were killed in a barrage on the Sunni Fadhil
district

Police, who reported fewer than 10 sectarian murders a day in the first
weeks of the security crackdown, are now typically reporting 30 or more.

FIGURES POLITICALLY SENSITIVE

The United Nations has rebuked Iraq's government for refusing to disclose
the politically sensitive civilian casualty figures in what it calls a
"rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis."

Maliki's government has accused the U.N. mission in Iraq of exaggerating the
death toll from sectarian violence between majority Shi'ite Muslims and
minority Sunni Arabs, and banned Iraqi officials from releasing data.

The U.N. mission said in January that 34,452 civilians were killed and more
than 36,000 wounded in 2006. These figures were much higher than any issued
by Iraqi government officials.

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Phlip · Guest