Nearly 6,000 Iraqi civilians died in May and June, UN says
Last Updated Tue, 18 Jul 2006 22:55:16 EDT CBC News
An average of nearly 100 Iraqi civilians were killed every day in May and June, a UN report released Tuesday says.
The toll in the two months was 5,818 deaths, the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq reported.
The report shows civilian deaths have risen steadily this year, from 710 in January to 1,129 in April to 2,669 in May and 3,149 in June. It calculated that 14,338 people had been killed in the first half of the year.
"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 and insurgents, as well as militias and criminal groups," a UN media release said.
"Kidnapping of individuals and groups, for ransom or political purposes, also continued to surge."
The report cites the example of 15 Tae Kwon Do athletes abducted in May. "There is no news regarding their whereabouts."
The figures are based on reports from the Iraqi Ministry of Health, which tracks deaths reported by hospitals, and the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad, which monitors unidentified bodies.
Civil leaders are targets
The report paints a picture of a country slipping into lawlessness, with assassinations and bombings a daily occurrence, and the country in the grip of what some observers have called a civil war.
As well as the militants who are fighting government and coalition forces, minority Sunni Arabs and majority Shias frequently attack each other.
Key civilians, who hold society together, have been targeted, among them teachers, judges, religious leaders and doctors.
The steady violence has forced people from their homes, the report said.
The mission's statistics are higher than those tabulated by other sources, such as the Associated Press, but many deaths in Iraq go unreported.
The UN Assistance Mission is helping the government develop political institutions and social and civil services.
With files from the Associated Press