By Alastair Macdonald
Reuters, 01 October 2006
BAGHDAD - The number of Iraqi civilians killed in violence may have jumped to a record high in September, data from the Iraqi government indicated on Sunday.
Partial statistics compiled by the Health Ministry and issued by the Interior Ministry put civilian deaths last month at 1,089, a 42 percent increase from 769 in August and more than the previous record in this series of data -- 1,065 in July.
Though apparently incomplete, the data have previously given early indications of trends later borne out by other estimates -- notably a sharp increase in killings after the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in February and a decline in the number of deaths at the start of a major military operation in Baghdad in August.
The United Nations, which adds numbers on hospital deaths from the Health Ministry to the numbers of unidentified bodies in the Baghdad morgue, has said 6,599 Iraqis were killed in July and August, 700 more than in the previous two months.
It said there were fewer deaths in August than in July, but said two weeks ago that casualties had risen in September.
On two days last month, the Interior Ministry reported finding 60 bodies in various locations around Baghdad, most of them bound, tortured, shot and dumped. Power drills, acid, nails and whips formed of electric cable are among the instruments of torture regularly used.
Dozens of such corpses are found every day.
Morgue officials say they have been ordered to stop giving out data on deaths, though an official told Reuters last month that the total number of unidentified bodies, most of which are victims of violence, fell by 17 percent in August to 1,536.
Morgue figures for September were not immediately available.
U.S. military commanders say they are sceptical of data from the Health Ministry, which is controlled by supporters of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The Mehdi Army militia claiming loyalty to Sadr is blamed by U.S. and some Iraqi officials for many sectarian death squad killings in Baghdad.
The U.S. military said the operation it began in August to clear militants from Baghdad had succeeded in halving the number of execution-style killings that month
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Citation: Alastair Macdonald. "Iraq civilian deaths hit record in Sept - ministry,"
Reuters, 01 October 2006.
Original URL: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAC145456.htm
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