Posted on 08/31/2006 11:57:21 AM PDT by neverdem
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Preliminary figures show that violent deaths in Iraq dropped substantially in August from record levels the previous month, Health Ministry officials said Thursday. Most of the recorded killings were of civilians.
At least 973 violent deaths were recorded throughout Iraq as of Wednesday, Dr. Riad Abdul Amir of the ministry's statistics bureau told The Associated Press. They included 715 civilians, 80 Iraqi soldiers, 74 police and 104 "terrorists," he said, apparently referring to both Sunni and Shiite militants.
Accurate figures on the number of people who have died in the Iraq conflict have long been the subject of debate. Police and hospitals often give widely conflicting figures of those killed in major bombings.
It is also unclear how many people may have been abducted and slain by insurgents or sectarian death squads, their bodies never found.
Still, the new figure represents a significant drop from a July tally of 3,500 deaths reported by Deputy Health Minister Adel Muhsin. Muhsin said that was the highest monthly figure recorded since the war began in March 2003.
Violent deaths in the capital fell to 550 in August, officials said Thursday, from about 1,500 in Baghdad in July. That was the lowest monthly tally in the city this year.
Abdul Amir's figures were compiled from reports by morgues and the ministries of Interior and Defense.
U.S. officials attribute the drop in violent deaths to a major security crackdown launched on Aug. 7. About 8,000 U.S. troops and 3,000 Iraqi soldiers were sent to the capital to search homes and patrol the streets.
Some however, have cautioned that it is too early to tell if the apparent decline in deaths is part of a long-term trend.
A surge of violence has killed more than 250 people in the Baghdad area since Sunday, raising further questions about whether U.S. and Iraqi forces have turned the corner.
But National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie insisted that execution-style killings and sectarian violence had dropped by 45 percent in the last six weeks. He said that was mainly due to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's national reconciliation plan and the Baghdad security operation.
"There's definitely a much better sense of security among the general public," he said. "The perception toward Iraqi security forces is much better."
On Monday, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said the rate of killings in Baghdad had fallen by 46 percent from July to August and "we are actually seeing progress out there."
The apparent decline in Iraqi deaths has not been matched by a drop in American casualties. At least 62 U.S. service members died in Iraq in August, compared with 43 in July.
Ministry officials stressed that their new figures were preliminary and a final count for the month would not be ready until next week. Nevertheless, officials said they were convinced that deaths were down sharply.
"In June and July we were getting scary numbers," said Hakim al-Zamly, a Health Ministry executive director. "There was an unreasonable number of gruesome killings and kidnappings."
He called the drop "definitely a slight, relative improvement."
According to an AP count, at least 11,916 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence since the first Iraqi government elected after the fall of Saddam Hussein took office on April 28, 2005.
Other counts put the number as high as 45,613.
No, you just will never hear about it. Thats all.
Can't wait for this story to be covered tonight on CBS News!
Just 50 were killed on Monday, apparently some of the civillian deaths are militants.
Hmmmm...
They must wear little terrorist badges, or something.
Bush's fault
The problem with the news of the violence in Baghdad, is every little death is reported and counted up, and for some reason, its HUGE international news. We have gangbangers in North Tulsa shooting each other every week. NYC I'm sure has a nice weekly death rate. If someone farts in Baghdad, its reported as " a catastrophic methane leak, evacuations are underway in the green zone." Puhleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez.
I am sure you say this "tongue in cheek" because while you have your tongue in your cheek don't hold your breath to see a favorable Iraq war story on CBS news. They will just crank up the reporting to include more rhetoric on getting our boys out of Iraq, quoting the usual Rat authorities, as soon as possible because we still might win this one.
I doubt he'll get blamed for it by the media.
They'll talk about a lucky coincindence for which Bush isn't responsible at all.
Schmucks!
I wondered. So that's it. LOL
Yes, that would be interesting. There's been a sort of joke going around that seems to touch on this, with the kicker being that we should just pack up and leave "say Detroit" because the citizens just don't want us there, and we're losing too many good men.
Rush mentions the yearly highway death toll when he's trying to keep things in prespective.
2700 deaths in three years is a rather small sum, not to make light of the deaths. They'd be terrible if there were only 20.
The MSM doesn't really give a damn unless the information would further the terrorist's cause.
No, we lost 51 in July and 62 in August, per the figures out today: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_casualties.htm
Moreover, those are very low rates compared to most other months in Iraq, much less to our death rates in other wars...not that the news media could even get the basic facts correct...
Some 3150 civilians were shot dead in the peaceful nation of Brazil this month...mostly in the paradise vacation beach destinations of Rio and Sao Paulo.
Guess we should pull out of Brazil, huh!
LOL, what next will Rove be telling the Gay bunch to start druming up gay marriage support again or is he saving that till later.
8/20: 30 dead
8/22: 100 dead in big operation
8/23: 1 dead
8/27: between 12 and 40, according to different reports
8/29: 50
So I get between 193 and 231 dead, just in Iraq, just since 8/20 when I started counting.
Throw in 96 dead in Afghanistan, plus 80 joining the government, and in 11 days of combat we have between 289 and 327 dead and 80 defectors for the entire War on Terror, or an average of 10,800 per year.
Rove is saving all the Gay stuff till 08.
MSM always has the word 'terrorist' in quotes.
The news media is now labeling all foreign insurgents as "terrorists" in scare quotes, while labeling all non-uniformed Iraqi fatalities as "civilians" without scare quotes.
In reality, 72% of those Iraqi "civilians" are non-uniformed Iraqi insurgents. Of the 715 "civilians" killed in Iraq in August, we can be statistically sure that 514 of that group were non-uniformed Iraqi insurgents.
Combined with the foreign terrorists, that makes for 618 dead bodies of Insurgents inside Iraq in August, which doesn't count the kills today, nor does that count the defectors (whole tribes are coming over to our side), nor kills where the enemy buries its own dead, nor kills where no bodies were recovered (e.g. artillery barrages), and it certainly doesn't count the wounded (typically 8 times as many wounded as killed in modern combat)...for which the insurgents lack our rapid and unsurpassed battlefield medical care.
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