Iraqi data shows leap in civilian deaths

The number of Iraqi civilians killed in violence appears to have leapt by more than 40 percent in November from a record level the previous month, data from Interior Ministry officials showed on Friday.
The increase, to 1,850 deaths, was closely matched by a 45-percent rise in the number of civilian deaths tallied by Reuters from individual incident reports provided by police and other officials. These included 202 people killed in Baghdad on November 23 in the bloodiest bomb attack since the US invasion. The ministry figure is more than three times the equivalent in January, before this year's surge in sectarian killing.
All such statistics are controversial in Iraq. A figure of 3,700 civilian deaths in October, given by the United Nations last week based on data from the Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue, was branded grossly exaggerated by the Iraqi government.
The UN figure indicates about 120 civilians died each day. An Interior Ministry official told Reuters on Friday that the 1,850 violent civilian deaths in November included people killed in bombings and shootings but not deaths classed as criminal.
The figure was 44 percent up on the 1,289 in October. An official at the Baghdad morgue, speaking privately because of the government ban on giving data, said last month it had taken in about 1,600 bodies in October, a 10-percent increase over September, and about 1,350 of these had died violently. No new morgue statistics for November were immediately available.
Although it does not appear to encompass all violent deaths in Iraq, the Interior Ministry's statistical series has reflected trends, including a rise from 582 deaths in January to 782 in March after the February 22 bombing of a Shia shrine at Samarra set off the wave of sectarian bloodshed that continues to swell. It also showed a dip from 1,065 in July to 769 in August, reflecting US military statements that a massive operation in Baghdad had dampened the killing. The effects of US and Iraqi reinforcements in the capital appear now to have worn off.
In October, Reuters quoted police, medical and other officials reporting 1,178 deaths. The same tally in November came to 1,706, a 45-percent rise. The Interior Ministry said 102 police officers and 26 Iraqi soldiers were killed in November, a similar total to October. US military reports show 68 American soldiers were killed in November, compared with 106 in the deadly month of October.