Almost 2 000 bodies were taken to Baghdad’s morgue in July, the highest tally in five months of rising sectarian bloodshed that has forced the United States to boost troop levels in the capital to head off a civil war.
Morgue assistant manager Dr Abdul Razzaq al-Obaidi said on Wednesday that about 90% had died violently.
”Most of the cases have gunshot wounds to the head. Some of them were strangled and others were beaten to death with clubs,” he told Reuters.
The grim statistics came as a new poll showed the Iraq war had become more unpopular with Americans.
The CNN poll showed that 60% of Americans were against the US war in Iraq, the highest level of opposition since the 2003 invasion, and a majority would back a partial withdrawal of US forces by year’s end.
The daily drumbeat of violence continued, claiming at least 13 lives and injuring 27 others in attacks around the country.
In Baghdad, five people were killed when gunmen opened fire on a street vendor grilling fish in the western district of Jamiaa, an Interior Ministry source said. Police also found nine bodies of civilians in various parts of the capital.
The July morgue toll of 1 815 marked a big jump over the 1 595 in June and is the largest since the aftermath of the February bombing of the Shi’ite Golden Mosque of Samarra, which triggered an explosion of sectarian violence.
Iraq’s health, interior and defence ministries consistently provide lower figures than those released by the morgue.
Figures from those ministries showed about 1 000 civilians were killed across Iraq in July in ”terrorism” attacks.
Mounting sectarian violence has prompted the US to reinforce troop levels in Baghdad, which is regarded as the key to security in the whole country but is increasingly carved up along sectarian lines.
About 6 000 additional Iraqi forces and 3 500 US soldiers of the 172nd Striker Brigade combat team are being deployed in the Baghdad area and are expected to start systematically clearing neighbourhoods of militants and insurgents.
Death squads
US Major General William Caldwell, chief US military spokesperson in Iraq, said on Wednesday that US and Iraqi forces had conducted operations against 10 death squads throughout Baghdad in the last week, and also found 222 roadside bombs.
Sunni Arab leaders have accused Shi’ite militias of running death squads, a charge they deny.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has vowed to confront the armed militias, but must tread carefully as some of these groups have close ties to parties in his government.
Al-Maliki said a consensus was building between religious leaders and prominent tribes to condemn the killings, and he was echoed by US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalizad.
But there were no signs of unity on the streets.
One civilian was killed and another hurt earlier in east Baghdad by a bomb that police said was targeting a US patrol, while in Basra an Iraqi army colonel was shot dead on his way to work and a roadside bomb killed a civilian in Kirkuk.
Five civilians died and 20 were hurt by a rocket attack in Baquba, north of Baghdad, which collapsed a three-storey building near to a mosque, police said.
The US military said two servicemen were missing in the insurgent hotbed of Anbar province after a helicopter crash.
The military said the helicopter, a US army Blackhawk from the Third Marine Aircraft Wing on an area-familiarisation flight, went down with six crew aboard on Tuesday.
Four others survived and were in a stable condition. It said the crash did not appear to have been the result of an attack. — Reuters