Iraq death toll hits highest since fall of Saddam

LAST month saw the highest monthly death toll in Iraq since the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, an Iraqi government minister said yesterday.

In Baghdad, deputy Health Minister Adel Muhsin said about 3,500 Iraqis died last month in sectarian or political violence nationwide.

Mr Muhsin said he had no comparative figures for other months but added that the July figure was the highest monthly tally of the war.

Last week, the ministry said about 1,500 violent deaths were reported in the Baghdad area alone in July.

Bombs killed at least 19 people in the Iraqi capital yesterday, while British troops battled dozens of gunmen who laid siege to the governor’s office in the southern city of Basra.

Eight people, most of them day labourers awaiting work, were killed when a bomb exploded at 11.10am in the Nahda district.

Two other bombs went off yesterday evening in central Baghdad, killing 11 and injuring 44, police said.

Clashes broke out in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, when members of the Bani Assad tribe attacked the Basra governor’s office, believing provincial officials were behind the killing of a tribal leader yesterday.

The tribesmen fled after British armoured vehicles arrived. One policeman was killed and four others wounded. Seven attackers were arrested.

Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew on the city to allow tempers to cool.

In Mosul, 225 miles north-west of Baghdad, armed clashes erupted between police and assailants in three neighbourhoods on the western side of the Tigris River, police Lieutenant Colonel Abdul-Karim Ahmed Khalaf said.

At least five gunmen were killed and six were arrested, he said. Western Mosul is predominantly Sunni Arab, while Kurds dominate in the east of the city.

Meanwhile US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told The New York Times Iran was encouraging Shi’ite militias to step up attacks on US forces in revenge for Israeli’s assault on Hezbollah.

Iran’s prodding has led to a surge in mortar and rocket attacks on the fortified Green Zone that houses the main components of the Iraqi government and the US embassy, he said. Four Australian soldiers were wounded on Monday in a rocket attack there.

Much attention has been focused on the security crisis in Baghdad following a wave of sectarian killings. But the unrest in such widely scattered parts of Iraq indicates the challenge facing US and Iraqi forces in trying to restore order.