UN: 100 civilians killed a day in Iraq

Posted by Jan Frel at 11:55 PM on July 19, 2006.

From The Independent:

Now, for the first time, the health ministry in Baghdad has told the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, which publishes a bimonthly report on human rights, the exact death toll recorded by hospitals around the country. The central morgue in Baghdad provides figures for unidentified bodies, of which there were 1,595 in June. In the first six months of the year the number of Iraqi civilians dying violently rose by 77 percent.

Other numbers that ought to be reported for the first time are the total number of all U.S. soldier serious body injuries, permanent brain injuries, and deaths. And we should get out the Pentagon's PTSD estimates for this occupation -- these numbers certainly exist, among others. We learn from the UN that "Some 3,149 people were killed in June alone, or more than 100 a day." The UN doesn't appear to have released the report just yet (anyone who knows better, please post the url below) but it will show up on this page when it does.

The Independent's report -- by Patrick Cockburn of course -- also includes the number of Iraqi refugees who headed west:

Many Iraqis have fled the country, mostly to Jordan and Syria, to avoid the violence. Syria now has 351,000 and Jordan 450,000 of these refugees, including 40 per cent of all Iraqi professionals, according to the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

Jan Frel is an AlterNet staff writer.