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Record 3709 iraqis killed in october 2006 Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/22/world/main2204944.shtmlhttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/22/world/main2204944.shtml
U.N.: 3,709 Iraqis Killed In October
BAGHDAD, Nov. 22, 2006
(CBS/AP) 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.
Also, President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced they will meet Nov. 29-30 in Jordan to discuss the deteriorating security situation in Iraq. "We will focus our discussions on current developments in Iraq, progress made to date in the deliberations of a high-level joint committee on transferring security responsibilities, and the role of the region in supporting Iraq," they said in a statement.
U.N. officials blamed the death toll 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 U.N. mission urged the Iraqi government, the U.S.-led multinational force and the rest of the world to help improve discipline in the security and armed forces, counter the influence of militias and combat corruption and organized crime.
The mission's human rights office continues to receive reports that the police and security forces are either infiltrated or act in collusion with militias, the U.N. said, noting, however, that the government had recently removed 3,000 employees of the Interior Ministry alleged to have been guilty of human rights abuses or corruption.
In other developments:
# At least 13 Iraqis were killed and six wounded Wednesday in attacks by suspected insurgents using drive-by shootings and bombings in Baghdad and other areas of Iraq, police said. Coalition forces also said they detained 59 suspected insurgents during raids in Baghdad, Fallujah and south of the capital in the past few days.
# Raad Jaafar Hamadi, an Iraqi journalist working for the state-run al-Sabah newspaper in Baghdad, was killed in a drive-by shooting Wednesday, police said. The slaying raised to at least 92 the number of journalists who have been killed in Iraq since the Iraq war began. Thirty-six other media employees — including drivers, interpreters and guards — also have been killed, all of them Iraqi except one Lebanese.
# A U.S. soldier died of a non-battle injury north of Baghdad on Tuesday, raising to at least 2,866 the number of U.S. servicemen who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003. So far this month in Iraq, 48 American service members have been killed or died.
# U.S. and Iraqi forces backed by helicopters swept into Baghdad's Sadr City Shiite slum in a dark-of-night raid Tuesday that netted seven militiamen, including one believed to know the whereabouts of an American soldier kidnapped nearly a month ago.
# Iraq and Syria, which severed diplomatic relations 24 years ago, restored links in a development that could stem some of Iraq's unrelenting violence. Both Iraq and the U.S. have challenged Syria over its role in supporting Iraq's Sunni-Arab insurgency. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem came to Iraq on Sunday, the first such visit by a senior Syrian official since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. Also, Iran, on Iraq's eastern border, sent its oil minister to Baghdad Tuesday, CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reported.
# Violence in Iraq declined Tuesday, with police, morgue and hospital officials reporting 33 people killed in sectarian violence. At least 44 tortured bodies were found dumped throughout central Iraq.
# A Marine pleaded guilty Tuesday to aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice in the death of Iraqi civilian who was shot and killed by his military unit. Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr. entered his pleas through his civilian attorney Steve Immel during court-martial proceedings and was expected to testify about the April incident in the town of Hamdania.
# The debate over what to do about the war on Iraq - complete with catch phrases to describe each plan - has intensified, with word of a secret report on the issue, commissioned by Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. According to the Washington Post Monday, the options are: "Go big, go long or go home."
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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