BAGHDAD, Iraq - The United Nations said Wednesday that 3,709 Iraqi civilians were killed in October, the highest monthly toll since the 2003 U.S. invasion.
The violence has been a combination of bombings and shootings by Sunni insurgents, and slayings by Shiite and Sunni death squads.
U.N. officials blamed the increase on the growing influence of armed militias and rampant torture “despite the government’s commitment to address human rights abuses.”
“Hundreds of bodies continued to appear in different areas of Baghdad handcuffed, blindfolded and bearing signs of torture and execution-style killing,” the officials quoted the report as saying. “Many witnesses reported that perpetrators wear militia attire and even police or army uniforms.”
The toll came in the latest U.N. report on human rights in Iraq, covering September and October, according to Said Arakat, spokesman for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq. The new toll exceeds the previous monthly high, of 3,590 in July. That earlier figure, an average of more than 100 a day, was termed “unprecedented” by the U.N.
According to past U.N. reports, 710 civilians were killed in January, 1,129 in April, 2,669 in May, 3,149 in June, and 3,009 in August.
At the heart of the U.N. findings are casualty figures that combine 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 U.N. said the report “paints a grim picture virtually across the board, from attacks on journalists, judges and lawyers and the worsening situation of women to displacement, violence against religious minorities and the targeting of schools.”
The toll for both September and October was 7,054 civilians killed, including 351 women and 110 children, it said.
The big comment I would have to make here is that both the October 2006 Iraqi casualty list and the October 2006 U.S. casualty list are the highest monthly death toll since the start of the U.S. invasion. October was a month of death in Iraq.
And I don't believe there is going to be any improvement.
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