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Morgue Stats Show Surge in Iraqi Killings

Posted May 24, 07 3:04 PM CDT in World 

(Newser) – Statistics from Iraqi morgues show that three months into the surge, sectarian killings are rising, the Washington Post reports. In the first three weeks of May, 321 unidentified corpses, many showing signs of exectution and torture, were found in Baghdad. The number equals those found in all of January, the month before the new security plan was launched.

In mid-February, the White House cited a decline in sectarian violence, but that trend appears to have reversed. The rise in this kind of violence, a hallmark of Shiite militias, accompanies a similar rise in suicide bombings, perpetrated mostly by Sunni insurgents. Remains of those who die in bombings are taken to hospitals, rather than morgues.

Source Washington Post

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Local morgue staff inspect bodies at the morgue's yard in Baqouba, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, May 19, 2007. 23 bodies were found in different parts of violent Diyala...   (Associated Press)
An Iraqi hospital worker inspects bodies outside the morgue of...   (Getty Images)
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Iraq • Iraq war • insurgents • troop surge • Shiite • Sunni • sectarian violence • militia


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