UN Report: Iraq hiding civilian death toll data

A boy grieves as he waits to collect the body of his father, killed in a mortar attack in Baghdad last week.

BAGHDAD, April 25 (Reuters) - The United Nations accused Iraq on Wednesday of withholding sensitive civilian casualty figures because the government fears the data would be used to paint a "very grim" picture of a worsening humanitarian crisis.

The criticism was contained in a new U.N. human rights report on Iraq which drew fire from U.S. officials in Baghdad and the Iraqi government. They said it was flawed and contained numerous inaccuracies.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government would not release data on civilian deaths amid spiralling sectarian violence between majority Shi'ites and once dominant Sunni Arabs.

"UNAMI emphasises again the utmost need for the Iraqi government to operate in a transparent manner," the mission said in its latest report on human rights in Iraq.

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