ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said that at least 1,000 Iraqis were killed and more than twice as many wounded by “acts of violence and terrorism” in March. The number of civilians killed was 729 (including 42 civilian police), and the number of civilians injured was 1,785 (including 98 civilian police), UNAMI said on its website. It added that a further 268 members of the Iraqi Security Forces, including Peshmerga, SWAT and militias fighting alongside the Iraqi Army – but not including casualties in Anbar province -- were killed and 387 were injured. The casualty figures coincide with operations by Iraqi forces to recapture territories lost to Islamic State (ISIS) last year in Salahadin and Anbar provinces in central Iraq. In Salahadin, Iraq declared victory against ISIS on Wednesday in the city of Tikrit. The UN tally shows that Baghdad has taken the lion’s share of casualties, despite being away from the main battlefields between the Iraqi army and ISIS. Baghdad affected governorate registered 1,290 civilian casualties -- 362 killed and 928 injured. Diyala suffered 51 killed and 75 injured; Salahadin suffered 34 killed and 48 injured and Nineveh 20 killed and 15 injured. UNAMI said Anbar province has also “suffered a total of 939 civilian casualties (237 killed and 702 injured). This included 58 killed and 391 injured in Ramadi and 179 killed and 311 injured in Fallujah.” “I am shocked to see that Iraqis continue to bear the brunt of appalling numbers of casualties caused by successive waves of violence, which are threatening with additional suffering and misery”, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq Jan Kubis was quoted as saying. UNAMI said that some of the casualty figures have remained unverifiable, but should be dealt with as the “absolute minimum.”
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