Iraq sees the most casualties in July since 2007
A total of 1,057 Iraqis were killed and another 2,326 were wounded in acts of terrorism and violence in July 2013, making it the most violent month since 2007, according to The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) Aug.1.
“The impact of violence on civilians remains disturbingly high, with at least 4,137 civilians killed and 9,865 injured since the beginning of 2013,” the Acting Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq, Mr. Gyorgy Busztin, warned. “We haven’t seen such numbers in more than five years, when the blind rage of sectarian strife that inflicted such deep wounds upon this country was finally abating. I reiterate my urgent call on Iraq’s political leaders to take immediate and decisive action to stop the senseless bloodshed, and to prevent these dark days from returning.”
As Jason Ditz at Antiwar.com points out, the number of casualties so far in 2013 already tops the total for all of 2012.
UNAMI reports that Baghdad was the worst-affected governorate in July with 957 civilian casualties (238 killed and 719 injured), followed by Salahuddin, Ninewa, Diyala, Kirkuk and Anbar (triple-digit figures).
[…] only is it the most violent since the middle of the American invasion, but it’s also grown to become the second-leading […]