'All-time high' in Baghdad violence

Relatives carry the body of an employee of Shaabiya satellite television channel from the al-Kindi hospital morgue in Baghdad October 12, 2006. Gunmen stormed the offices of the new satellite channel in Baghdad on Thursday and killed 11.


BAGHDAD — The number of sectarian killings each month in Baghdad has more than tripled since February, and the violence has not slowed despite a major offensive in the capital.

Death squads killed 1,450 people in September, up from 450 in February, according to U.S. military statistics. In the first 10 days of October, death squads have killed about 770 Iraqis.

The increase in death squad killings reflects the level of religious warfare that is now the largest threat to security in Iraq.

Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a military spokesman, acknowledged violence in Baghdad is at an "all-time high" and said U.S. commanders, in coordination with their Iraqi counterparts, are continuing to adjust the security plan to try to reduce the violence. "We've been working to keep it peaceful, and we've been frustrated that the extremists keep perpetuating the number of attacks," Garver said.

U.S. forces are also caught in the violence. At least 37 American troops have been killed in combat this month, about half of them in or around Baghdad, where Iraqi and U.S. forces are attempting to loosen the grip of armed militias. The weekly average of U.S. deaths since President Bush declared the end of major combat operations in May 2003 has been about 14.

Sectarian violence grew after the February bombing of a sacred Shiite mosque in Samarra. Gen. George Casey, the top-ranking U.S. officer in Iraq, said the conflict was changing from an insurgency against U.S. forces to a struggle among Iraqis.

The civil unrest has placed U.S. troops in a difficult position. In a seven-day period last week, troops from the Army's 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment in northwest Baghdad investigated 40 sectarian killings and collected 57 bodies, many of them mutilated or bearing signs of torture, said Sgt. Jeff Nelson, an intelligence analyst with the unit. "We're finding bodies everywhere out here," he said. The troops haven't caught any suspects in the deaths, Nelson said.

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