The Common Ills: More violence in the never-ending Iraq War

Monday, April 04, 2016

More violence in the never-ending Iraq War

Today, Iraq has been slammed with several suicide bombings.

CATCH NEWS notes, "In one incident, a suicide car bomb killed five in Basra, the largest city in Iraq, while five others were killed when a convoy of the Popular Mobilization Force (PMF) was targeted in Mashahdeh town of Baghdad." They note over 60 injured in the bombings while AP counts 29 dead.

The latest wave of violence follows UNAMI releasing their totals (undercount) for March's violence:

Baghdad, 01 April 2016 – A total of 1,119 Iraqis were killed and another 1,561 were injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in March 2016*, according to casualty figures recorded by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

The number of civilians killed in March was 575 (including 45 federal police, Sahwa civil defence, Personal Security Details, facilities protection police, fire department), and the number of civilians injured was 1,196 (including 50 federal police, Sahwa civil defence, Personal Security Details, facilities protection police, fire department).

A total of 544 members of the Iraqi Security Forces (including Peshmerga, SWAT and militias fighting alongside the Iraqi Army but excluding Anbar Operations) were killed and 365 were injured.

The overall casualty figures are up from the previous month of February, where a total of 670 were killed and 1,290 were injured.

The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Iraq, Mr. Ján Kubiš, expressed his deep concern at the continuing violence and loss of life and injury in Iraq.

“I am extremely disturbed at the continuing loss of life and injury as a result of terrorism, violence and armed conflict. It is totally unacceptable that civilians should bear the brunt of violence,” Mr. Kubiš said.

“My hope is that the proposed reforms will be implemented and will lead to an eventual normalcy in this beautiful country”, SRSG Kubiš added.

Baghdad was the worst affected Governorate with 1,029 civilian casualties (259 killed, 770 injured). Ninewa 133 killed and 89 injured, Babil 65 Killed and 141 injured, Kirkuk 34 killed and 57 injured, while Diyala had 11 killed and 0 injured and Salahadin 6 killed and 1 injured.

According to information obtained by UNAMI from the Health Directorate in Anbar, the Governorate suffered a total of 201 Civilian casualties (64 killed and 137 injured). Figures are updated until 30 March, inclusive.

* CAVEATS: Figures for Anbar are updated until 30 March, inclusive. In general, UNAMI has been hindered in effectively verifying casualties in conflict areas. Figures for casualties from Anbar Governorate are provided by the Health Directorate and are noted below. Casualty figures obtained from the Anbar Health Directorate might not fully reflect the real number of casualties in those areas due to the increased volatility of the situation on the ground and the disruption of services. In some cases, UNAMI could only partially verify certain incidents. UNAMI has also received, without being able to verify, reports of large numbers of casualties along with unknown numbers of persons who have died from secondary effects of violence after having fled their homes due to exposure to the elements, lack of water, food, medicines and health care. For these reasons, the figures reported have to be considered as the absolute minimum.

The violence continues as Iraq's inability to reach consensus continues.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has trashed the Constitution in his efforts to remake the Cabinet.

But that's already run into hiccups -- see Saturday's snapshot.

Another hiccup's emerged today.

Parliament's declaring that they will vote yes or no on his nominees . . . in batches.

Not all at once as he'd hoped.

But hopes tend to crash hard against reality.

Ask anyone who thought their 2008 presidential vote was ending the Iraq War how that turned out.

Or just check out the US military's Tweet below:

Liked 18 times