Boasting Baghdad 'murder' drop, U.S. didn't add in mass attacks

BAGHDAD — The American military did not count people killed by bombs, mortars, rockets or other mass attacks — including suicide bombings — when it reported a dramatic drop in the number of murders in the Baghdad area last month, the U.S. command said Monday.

The decision to include only victims of drive-by shootings and those killed by torture and execution, usually at the hands of death squads, allowed U.S. officials to argue that a security crackdown that began in the capital Aug. 7 had more than halved the city's murder rate.

Under the military definition, "murders" include civilians killed "who are specifically targeted," but do not include executions or "those killed in indirect fire, IED (improvised explosive devices), VBIED (car bombs), or suicide attacks, all of which may or may not be related to sectarian violence," U.S. Military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said Monday.

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