Adrian Blomfield
The Daily Telegraph
02 June 2005
Iraq's security services have suffered their deadliest month since the fall of Saddam Hussein, illustrating the rise in violence in the country.
Yesterday's announcement by the interior ministry gives the lie to suggestions that better intelligence and more arrests had reduced the insurgents' capability to strike.
Random searches have made little impact on insurgent activities Officials reported that at least 220 police officers and soldiers were killed in May, mainly by suicide bombings. The figure does not include potential recruits killed while queuing up to join the forces, a favoured target. "This figure does not even include those killed in the last two or three days," a senior police officer said.
March was the previous deadliest month, with 200 security personnel killed. Nearly 500 civilians were killed in the past month and US forces also suffered badly with 77 military deaths, the highest toll since January. However, an Iraqi defence ministry spokesman said that the insurgency had also suffered, with more than 260 fighters killed during May.
"The figure is more than 260, especially if you consider the 125 killed in Qaim and those killed in Haditha [two US-led operations] and the many suicide bombings last month," he said.
The insurgents seem to be improving the sophistication of their attacks. The ministry yesterday said that one insurgent, posing as a fruit vendor, had sold poisoned watermelons to police officers manning checkpoints on one of the main roads from Baghdad to the north. At least one policeman died.
The UN oil-for-food scandal has claimed its first casualty, with Joseph Stephanides, the head of the UN Security Council Affairs Division, being dismissed for "serious misconduct".
He denied any wrongdoing over the $64 billion programme and said he planned to appeal.
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Citation:
Adrian Blomfield, "Iraq security forces suffer fatal month", The Daily Telegraph, 02 June 2005. Original URL:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/06/02/wirq02.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/06/02/ixworld.html