Friday, September 08, 2006
Baghdad - 1,500 killed in August
Security
According to Hakim al-Zamily, director general at the health ministry, the Baghdad morgue received 1,584 bodies of people killed in violent attacks. The ministry reported 1,850 killings in the war-torn capital in July.
The health ministry figures contradict Thursday's statement by the US-led forces chief spokesman Major General William Caldwell that August's "murder rate in Baghdad dropped 52 per cent from the daily rate for July." However, another coalition spokesman said on Friday that the US military figure for murders does not include those killed in Baghdad's daily suicide bombings and mortar attacks in crowded civilian areas.
The health ministry figures contradict Thursday's statement by the US-led forces chief spokesman Major General William Caldwell that August's "murder rate in Baghdad dropped 52 per cent from the daily rate for July." However, another coalition spokesman said on Friday that the US military figure for murders does not include those killed in Baghdad's daily suicide bombings and mortar attacks in crowded civilian areas.
On June 14, US and Iraqi forces launched "Operation Together Forward", a massive security operation in the capital, in a bid to quell the violence. Despite the push, the number of violent deaths in July was the highest since the US-led invasion of March 2003.
