Security Improvement? Fewer Deaths Recorded in Baghdad

[ECH1969]

The security clampdown in Baghdad may be working, as August brought violent deaths to their lowest level this year.

The Baghdad morgue reports 360 deaths compared with 995 a year ago, and much lower than in previous months (more than 1,000 deaths were reported on average from January through July). July was particularly violent, with 1,855 deaths.

ABC News military analyst Anthony H. Cordesman believes that the coalition's security plan with the Iraqi government, called Together Forward, may have tempered the violence for a while as the insurgency regroups and waits out the clampdown.

"Without follow-up in terms of political settlement, government services and a rule of law, having troops 'pacify' a city normally has little lasting value," Cordesman said. Cordesman also fears that violence will shift to other areas, especially now that more troops are in the capital.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2374829

[babylonsister]

1. Depends on who's reporting and who you believe:

Iraq 4-Day Death Toll Climbs To 200
Senior Commander Calls Violence Surge 'A Statement'

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/24/iraq/main541815.shtml

snip//

Violence across Iraq has spiked in recent days, with more than 200 people killed since Sunday in clashes, bombings or shootings — despite U.S. and Iraqi officials' claims that a new security operation in the capital has lowered Sunni-Shiite killings there, which had risen in June and July.

snip//

[Joanne98]

2. Republicans ALWAYS LIE about NUMBERS!

[dipsydoodle]

3. Nil would be better

and even 360 is infinitely more than nil.

[Monkeyman]

4. Yep even the amount of our wounded they lie about

[Eugene]

5. Is this figure reliable? The Iraqi government has undercounted

deaths in past months.

This is not the whole picture since there is is now plenty of killing
going on north and south of Baghdad proper.

[ShockediSay]

6. Time to divide the country into three equitable pieces

and split

[ConcernedCanuk]

7. "recorded" being the operative word here - -

.
.
.

The BFEE ain't reporting the deaths of those soldiers with no families and the others from Mexico and so on that were promised citizenship if they lived through this slaughter.

And I don't think mercenaries are counted either . . .

And the BushGang SURE ain't gonna let loose with the numbers of Iraqi fatalities at the hands of their WarMachine . .

What was it Rummy said? -

"We don't do body counts"

was that it ?

of course not

The deaths of innocent Iraqis are not bodies, or even people to this the US MalAdministration

That's "Collateral Damage" doncha know?

(sigh)

[alfredo]

8. Anbar Province is aflame.

[PBass]

9. I heard the US military is doing less patrols...

High casualty counts really agitate the public, so they have been laying low (relatively speaking) in order to keep the body count down.

Not sure if that is verfiably true, it's only just what I have heard.

[struggle4progress]

10. Spate of violence claims at least 52 lives around Iraq

AP , BAGHDAD
Thursday, Aug 31, 2006,Page 1

A roadside bomb blast yesterday at Baghdad's largest and oldest wholesale market district killed at least 24 people and injured 35, adding to the violence in Iraq that claimed 52 people, police said ...

Earlier, an explosives-rigged bicycle detonated near an army recruiting center in a city south of Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 38, police said.

In downtown Baghdad, three police officers were killed and 14 people were injured when twin bombs -- including one planted in a car -- struck a police patrol as it drove by a line of vehicles waiting in a line for gasoline at a filling station.

Also in Baghdad, three carpet merchants who were driving in a taxi on their way to work were shot and killed in west Baghdad, Abdul-Razaq said ...

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2006/08/31/2003325573

Note the story describes at least 42 violent deaths in Baghdad yesterday

[struggle4progress]

11. "... The morgue does not count victims of explosions ... "

Deaths Drop in Iraqi Capital
By Solomon Moore, Times Staff Writer
August 28, 2006
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq28aug28,0,5085663.story?coll=la-home-headlines