WORLD / Middle East
Iraq civilian toll spikes to 6,000
(AP)
Updated: 2006-07-19 08:51
Nearly 6,000 civilians were slain across Iraq in May and June, a spike in
deaths that coincided with rising sectarian attacks across the country,
the United Nations said Tuesday.
An Iraqi woman gestures at the site of an explosion in Kufa July 18,
2006. A suicide bomber pulled his minivan into a busy market on Tuesday,
lured labourers onboard with the promise of jobs and then blew himself
up, killing at least 59 people in one the bloodiest attacks in Iraq this
year. [Reuters]
The report from the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq describes a wave of
lawlessness and crime, including assassinations, bombings, kidnappings,
torture and intimidation.
Hundreds of teachers, judges, religious leaders and doctors have been
targeted for death, and thousands of people have fled, the report said.
Evidence suggests militants also have begun to target homosexuals, it
said.
"While welcoming recent positive steps by the government to promote
national reconciliation, the report raises alarm at the growing number of
casualties among the civilian population killed or wounded during
indiscriminate or targeted attacks by terrorists or insurgents," the U.N.
said in a note accompanying the report.
In the last two days alone, more than 120 people were killed in violence
in Iraq. In the worst attacks, fifty-three perished in a suicide bombing
Tuesday in Kufa, and 50 were slain Monday in a market in Mahmoudiya.
According to the report, 2,669 civilians were killed in May and 3,149
were killed in June. Those numbers combined two counts: from the Ministry
of Health, which records deaths reported by hospitals; and the
Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad, which tallies the unidentified bodies
it receives.
The report charts a month-by-month increase in the number of civilians
killed, from 710 in January to 1,129 in April. In the first six months of
the year, it said 14,338 people had been killed.
The report's figures were higher than some other counts, but even the
U.N. said many killings go unreported.
According to an Associated Press tally based on its daily reporting, at
least 1,511 civilians were killed, in May and June, with at least an
additional 289 police and security forces killed.
The AP tally showed that from January through June 2006, at least 4,191
civilians were killed. The minimum number of police and security forces
casualties in that period was at least 805 killed. The AP figures do not
include insurgents.
It was unclear whether the tally from the Medico-Legal Institute included
only those who were killed as a result of violence.
The spike in casualties comes despite the formation of a unity
government, which took power on May 20. U.S. officials had hoped it would
make good on promises to disband Shiite militants and bring Sunni
insurgents into the fold.
Yet, as the report said, parts of Iraq have seen "collusion between
criminal gangs, militias and sectarian 'hit groups,' alleged death
squads, vigilante groups and religious extremists."
It also details the rise in kidnappings, particularly of large groups of
people. On May 17, for example, the report said 15 Tae Kwon Do athletes
were kidnapped in western Iraq.
"There is no news regarding their whereabouts," the report said.
Women report that their rights have been rolled back by extremist Muslim
groups, both Shiite and Sunni. While under Saddam Hussein's largely
secular regime, women faced few social restrictions, they say they are
now barred from going to market alone, wearing pants or driving cars.
And children are frequently victims, perishing in large crowds or
sometimes even targeted themselves, the report said.
"Violence, corruption, inefficiency of state organs to exert control over
security, establish the rule of law and protect individual and collective
rights all lead to inability of both the state and the family to meet the
needs of children," it said.
The government still has not pursued many allegations of torture and
other inhumane treatment in prisons and detention centers, the U.N. said.
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