WORLD / Middle East
34,452 Iraq civilians said killed in '06
(AP)
Updated: 2007-01-17 08:47
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Twin car bombs tore through a leading Baghdad university
as students left classes Tuesday in the deadliest attack in Iraq in
nearly two months, and the United Nations reported 34,452 civilians were
slain last year, nearly three times more than the government reported.
The wreckage of vehicles lies on a road after a car bomb attack near a
university in Baghdad January 16, 2007. A car bomb near a university in
eastern Baghdad killed 10 people and wounded 25 more on Tuesday, an
Interior Ministry source said, adding that the toll may rise. [Reuters]
A total of 142 Iraqis were killed or found dead Tuesday, in what appeared
to be a renewed campaign of Sunni insurgent violence against Shiite
targets. The sharp uptick in deadly attacks coincided with the release of
UN figures that showed an average of 94 civilians died each day in
sectarian bloodshed in 2006.
The blasts wrecked two small buses as students at Al-Mustansiriya
University were lining up for the ride home at about 3:45 p.m., according
to Taqi al-Moussawi, a university dean. The attackers stationed a man
wearing a suicide belt in the expected path of fleeing students to take
even more lives, but he was spotted and shot by security men before he
could blow himself up, the dean said.
"The only guilt of our martyred students is that they pursued education.
They belong to all religions, sects and ethnic groups," said an angry
al-Moussawi, himself a Shiite. "The terrorists want to stop education.
...Those students had nothing to do with politics."
After the explosions, a rescue worker and three men in civilian clothes
scrambled through the debris to carry a charred victim away in a sheet.
Firefighters in yellow helmets examined the charred wreckage of an
bashed-in, overturned minivan.
The university's well-shaded campus occupies several square blocks in
north central Baghdad, a mostly Shiite area. The school ranks second
among institutions of higher education in Iraq. Founded in 1963, it was
named after one of the oldest Islamic schools, established in the 13th
century during the Abbasid dynasty that ruled the Muslim world. Thousands
attend the university, known especially for its colleges of science,
literature and education.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki blamed the attack on "terrorists and
Saddamists" seeking revenge for Monday's hanging of two of Saddam
Hussein's top aides, convicted with him for the slaying of 148 Shiite men
and boys after a 1982 assassination attempt in the northern town of
Dujail.
The violence Tuesday against Shiites may signal a campaign by Sunni
insurgents to shed as much blood as possible before the deployment of
21,500 more American troops. Most of the additional U.S. troops will be
used to back up the Iraqi army in a security sweep to rid the capital of
Sunni and Shiite gunmen.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Kuwait for a meeting with eight
Arab nations to discuss ways to keep Iraq from sliding into civil war,
sought to lower any expectations that the troop buildup would quickly
pacify the country.
"Violent people will always be able to kill innocent people," she said.
"So even with the new security plan, with the will and capability of the
Iraqi government and with American forces to help reinforce Iraqi forces,
there is still going to be violence."
She said the UN civilian death figures differ from others. "But whatever
the number of civilians who have died in Iraq �� and there obviously are
competing numbers �� but whatever the number is, it's too many," she said.
The university bombing's death toll was the highest daily toll since
suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters staged a series of car bombs and
mortar attacks on Baghdad's Sadr City Shiite slum. That attack killed at
least 213 people on Nov. 23.
The UN civilian casualty count for last year was announced in Baghdad by
Gianni Magazzeni, the chief of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq in
Baghdad. He said 34,452 civilians died �� an average of 94 a day �� and
36,685 were wounded.
But Dr. Hakem al-Zamili, Iraq's deputy health minister, told The
Associated Press the United Nations may be using unreliable sources for
its casualty count. "They might be taking the figures from people who are
opposed to the government or to the Americans," he said. "They are not
accurate." He said he would provide Iraqi government figures later this
week.
In early January, a compilation of Iraqi government figures put last
year's civilian deaths at just 12,357. The numbers are gathered monthly
by the AP from reports by three Iraqi agencies.
When asked about the difference, Magazzeni said the UN figures were
compiled from information obtained through the Iraqi Health Ministry,
hospitals across the country and the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad.
He criticized the government for allowing much of the violence to go
unpunished, saying urgent action was needed to re-establish law and order
in the country to prevent its slide into all-out civil war.
"Without significant progress in the rule of law, sectarian violence will
continue indefinitely and eventually spiral out of control," he warned.
The UN report also said that 30,842 people were detained in the country
as of Dec. 31, including 14,534 held in U.S. military-run prisons.
At least 470,094 people throughout Iraq have been forced to leave their
homes since the bombing of an important Shiite shrine, the Golden Dome
mosque in Samarra, in February, the UN accounting said.
The report said the violence has disrupted education by forcing schools
and universities to close, as well as sending professionals fleeing from
the country.
In a summary of the report posted on its Web site Tuesday, UNAMI said
Iraq's women were particularly vulnerable, citing cases where young women
were abducted by armed militia and late discovered sexually assaulted,
tortured or murdered. In many cases, the agency said, families refuse to
retrieve the bodies out of shame.
As bombs detonated at Al-Mustansiriya University on Tuesday, there were a
series of other attacks on Shiite neighborhoods in central Baghdad.
A bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded in a used auto and motorcycle
parts market in a Shiite neighborhood. As people rushed to aide the
victims of the first blast, a suicide car bomber drove his car into the
crowd. Fifteen people died.
Raid Abbas, a 26-year-old who received shrapnel wounds in the attack said
he went to the market because the city had been quieter over the past two
weeks.
"Shortly after midday, I heard an explosion. Motorcycles were flying in
the air, people were falling dead and wounded," he said from his hospital
bed.
About 45 minutes later, gunmen riding two motorcycles and in a van fired
on another outdoor market in a mainly Shiite neighborhood near Sadr City.
Police said at least 11 people were killed.
Of the 142 Iraqis killed or found dead Tuesday, 124 died in Baghdad.
Police said they had been unable to complete their tally of dumped
corpses in the eastern half of the city because of violence there.
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