UN: Iraqi civilian deaths at New High by CNN / AFP / The Associated Press 10:30am 24th Nov, 2006   November 25, 2006    Shiites attack Sunnis in revenge attacks.(CNN)    Enraged Shiites attacked mosques and denounced Sunni leaders and the United States a day after a bloody assault on Sadr City, the Iraq capital"s Shiite bastion.    The rising sectarian violence increased the political pressure in Iraq.    The new attacks and counterattacks threaten to bring Iraq to the brink of all-out civil war, a process that has escalated since the February bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad.    Since then, thousands have fled their homes for other neighborhoods and countries in the face of Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence.    Thousands more have died. The sectarian violence has left its imprint with the daily discovery of tortured bodies around the capital despite U.S. and Iraqi military efforts to stem the brutality.    Thursday"s coordinated Sadr City strike, which killed more than 200 and wounded more 250 Thursday, is considered the worst of the Iraq war, and Sunni militants are widely assumed to have carried it out.    Witnesses said Shiite gunmen attacked on Friday two mosques and burned two other Sunni mosques in the largely Shiite area of Hurriya in northwestern Baghdad.    Shiite militiamen are also said to have shot a number of people. One witness reported at least five people were killed.    Two Sunni Arab neighborhoods -- Ghazaliya and Adhamiya -- also withstood a barrage of mortar fire that wounded 10 people earlier..    24.11.2006.    Baghdad bombs kill over 200 people. (AFP)    In the worst attack on Baghdad since the 2003 invasion, insurgents killed at least 200 people today and wounded 236 in a series of car bombings in the Shi"ite district of Sadr City. The attacks prompted the interior ministry to announce an indefinite curfew in the capital.    Wounded clogged the hospitals of Sadr City, with dozens lying bleeding in the corridors as overworked staff struggled to tend to the casualties. A local medic said many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition. A police official said other bodies were taken to hospitals outside the district. Hospital security forces kept at bay hundreds of relatives struggling to see the dead and wounded.    The bloodiest bomb exploded in a crowded market in the Hay neighbourhood, targeting stores selling religious CDs, as well as electronics outlets selling mobile phones.    In the increasingly bitter sectarian war gripping the capital, crowded markets in Shi"ite neighbourhoods and villages have been regular targets for the bombers of the Sunni-led insurgency.    In the market, the twisted frame of a car carrying the explosives sat amid the wreckage of the shops, while everywhere the ground was littered with pools of blood and debris from the stores..    November 22, 2006    UN: Iraqi Civilian Deaths at New High, by Sameer N. Yacoub. (AP)    The United Nations said Wednesday that 3,709 Iraqi civilians were killed in October, the highest monthly toll since the March 2003 U.S. invasion and another sign of the severity of Iraq"s sectarian bloodbath.    The U.N. tally was more than three times higher than the total The Associated Press had tabulated for the month, and far more than the 2,866 U.S. service members who have died during all of the war.    The report on civilian casualties, handed out at a U.N. news conference in Baghdad, said the influence of militias was growing and torture continued to be rampant, despite the Iraqi government"s vow to address human rights abuses.    "Hundreds of bodies continued to appear in different areas of Baghdad handcuffed, blindfolded and bearing signs of torture and execution-style killing," the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq report said. "Many witnesses reported that perpetrators wear militia attire and even police or army uniforms."    The report painted a grim picture across the board, from attacks on journalists, judges and lawyers and the worsening situation of women to displacement, violence against religious minorities and the targeting of schools.    Based on figures from the Iraqi Health Ministry, the country"s hospitals and the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad, the report said October"s figure was higher than July"s previously unprecedented civilian death toll of 3,590.    "I think the type of violence is different in the past few months," Gianni Magazzeni, the UNAMI chief in Baghdad, told the news conference. "There was a great increase in sectarian violence in activities by terrorists and insurgents, but also by militias and criminal gangs."    He said "this phenomenon" has been typical since Sunni-Arab insurgents bombed a major Shiite shrine on Feb. 22 in Samarra, north of Baghdad.    UNAMI"s Human Rights Office continued to receive reports that Iraqi police and security forces are either infiltrated or act in collusion with militias, the report said.    It said that while sectarian violence is the main cause of the civilian killings, Iraqis also continue to be the victims of terrorist acts, roadside bombs, drive-by shootings, cross fire between rival gangs, or between police and insurgents, kidnappings, military operations, crime and police abuse.    Access to the U.N. news conference in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad was blocked for many because the main entrance was closed as U.S. forces were checking for unexploded ordinance in the area, a U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.    The news conference also was being held one day after a car bomb attack inside the Green Zone apparently attempted to kill Iraq"s controversial speaker of parliament.    The small bomb exploded Tuesday afternoon at the back of an armored car in the motorcade of the Sunni speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, as it was driving into a parking lot near the Green Zone"s convention center, where al-Mashhadani and other Iraqi legislators were meeting, a parliamentary aide said.    The serious security breach in the Green Zone, which houses the Iraqi government,forced the Iraqi legislators to stay inside the convention center for several hours until the fire was put out and the area found to be safe, the aide said.    "We strongly condemn this act," Ammar Wajih, the chief spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni-Arab part in Iraq, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.    "To plant a bomb in a heavily guarded place near the parliament building is a big security breach because few authorized persons can enter this area. The aim of this act is to hamper the political process."
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