Al Jazeera – 2013-08-01 14:08:29
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/08/20138192433716965.html
UN: July Deadliest Month in Iraq Since 2008
A total of 1,057 Iraqis killed and 2,326 wounded in violence whose impact on civilians “remains disturbingly high”
Al Jazeera
(August 1, 2013) — The UN has released the latest casualty figures and expressed concern about the high number of dead and wounded who were killed in the month of July.
According to United Nations Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), 1,057 Iraqis were killed and another 2,326 were wounded in July 2013.
The number of civilians, including civilian police, killed was 928, while the injured was 2,109. A further 129 members of the Iraqi Security Forces were killed and 217 were injured.
“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,” Gyorgy Busztin, the acting special representative of the UN secretary-general for Iraq, said on Thursday.
“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.”
Baghdad was the worst-affected governorate in July with 957 civilian casualties [238 killed and 719 injured], followed by Salahuddin, Ninewa, Diyala, Kirkuk, Anbar, Babil, Wasit and Basra.
The death toll for the month of July last year, according to figures released by the ministries of defence, interior and health in Iraq amounted to 989 people, the highest official death toll from the violence in a single month since April 2008, were injured in 1567, most of them civilians.
Roadtrip Iraq
Filmmaker Feurat Alani / Al Jazeera World
(July 31, 2013) — The incidental casualties of war are the individuals who lose family, property, limbs and lives. But sometimes collateral damage can describe what has happened to an entire nation.
Ten years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq still suffers from the damage wrought in the overthrow of a dictator and the chaos that followed.
Now, as Iraq adjusts after the withdrawal of American troops, what is the new reality of everyday life? What are the daily struggles for the ordinary people of this extraordinarily diverse country?
The film asks how far Iraq’s authorities have been able to deliver justice, prosperity and the kind of security needed for any kind of normal civilian life.
From the mainly Kurdish north, through the predominantly Sunni middle belt, and ending in the Shia-majority south, a film crew takes a roadtrip by bus, gathering stories of ordinary people as they jump on and off for their part of the journey.
Artists, warlords and widows are among those who share their sorrows, reveal their problems and describe their dreams. We discover just what the country looks like through the eyes of its war-weary sons and daughters.
We meet activists, among them Zahid Mahmoud, who sums up his perception of the state of the country:
“We didn’t have freedom under Saddam’s rule, but we didn’t live in hunger either. Today, we do have freedom but people are starving. Most people are poor. Thousands of new graduates can’t find a job. The leaders are monopolising the job market for the benefit of their entourage.”
Another resident’s wishes sum up the yearning of the divided country.
“Our wish is that we get a just ruler. Someone who can reconcile our differences and listen to everyone whether Sunni, Shia, Kurd, Arab or Christian,” Taha Kamel from Fallujah says.
A dictator was taken down at a very high price to the Iraqi people. A price that it seems they will continue to pay for many years to come.
Roadtrip Iraq is crossing the country from north to south, taking the pulse of a nation that is no longer at war but neither at peace.
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Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
