Iraqi death toll mounts

A SURVEY of deaths in the first 12 months of the occupation of Iraq has found that more than 5,000 Iraqis have died violently in just Baghdad and three provinces.

The toll from both criminal and political violence ran dramatically higher than violent deaths before the war, according to statistics from morgues.

There are no reliable figures for places such as Fallujah and Najaf that have seen surges in fighting since early April.

There is no precise count for Iraq as a whole nor is there a breakdown of deaths.

The US military, the occupation authority and Iraqi government agencies say they do not have the ability to track civilian deaths.

But the Associated Press survey of morgues in Baghdad and the provinces of Karbala, Kirkuk and Tikrit found 5,558 violent deaths recorded from May 1, 2003, when President George W Bush declared an end to major combat operations, to April 30.