Baghdad second only to Mosul for terrorism and violence casualties, UN

BAGHDAD, Iraq--Baghdad was second only to Mosul in terms of the number of casualties in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq where 109 people killed and 523 injured in December, UN report finds.

 

A total of 386 Iraqi civilians were killed across the country and another 1,066 were injured in December 2016, according to casualty figures recorded by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

 

The casualty figures do not include members of Iraq’s armed forces.

 

The report said that the northern province of Nineveh with its provincial capital of Mosul -- where Iraqi security forces are battling ISIS-- was the worst affected province with 208 killed and another 511 injured. 

 

“Though the figures for December are lower than previous months, we are nevertheless noticing an increase in terrorist bombings towards the end of the month and in the last couple of days, targeting civilians,” UN Special Representative for Iraq Ján Kubiš said on Monday. 

 

On Monday, ISIS claimed responsibility for three separate bombings which killed and wounded at least 113 civilians in Baghdad.

 

Also following an armed attack on two police stations in Samarra on Monday night the Iraqi security forces imposed a curfew throughout the city.

 

At least seven policemen were reported dead by the end of the confrontations.

 

The UN mission in Iraq, UNAMI, stopped publicizing military casualty figures early in December after the Joint Operations Command of the Iraqi military complained the UN figures for November were “much exaggerated.” UNAMI admitted that figures for the armed forces were "largely unverified". 

 

UNAMI reported last month that 1,959 Iraqi Security Forces, including army, police, and Peshmerga, had been killed in the month of November. 

 

The December figures do not include the province of Anbar, UNAMI noted, because the health department did not provide figures for the month.