Report: Civilian deaths in July exceed pre-surge levels

Above: Members of the Red Crescent Society workers prepare burial for 40 bodies left unclaimed for the last two months at the central morgue in Baqubah today.

The number of Iraqi civilians killed in the country's brutal civil conflict rose by more than a third in July despite a five-month-old surge in US troop levels, government figures showed Wednesday.

At least 1,652 civilians were killed in Iraq in July, 33 percent more than in the previous month, according to figures compiled by the Iraqi health, defence and interior ministries and made available to AFP...

July's civilian toll was slightly higher than the number for February, when the United States began a "surge" in troops aimed at flooding Baghdad with reinforcements to stem Iraq's sectarian bloodletting.

The Iraqi government refuses to release official casualty figures, but the new numbers tally with the personal experience of many Baghdad residents, who insist the streets of the capital remain extremely dangerous.

Read the rest at Yahoo News

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