BAGHDAD, May 2 (Reuters) – April was Iraq’s bloodiest month
for almost five years, with 712 people killed in bomb attacks
and other violence, the United Nations Iraq mission said on
Thursday.
Iraq has grown more volatile as the civil war in neighboring
Syria strains fragile relations between Sunni and Shi’ite
Muslims. Tensions are at their highest since U.S. troops pulled
out in December 2011.
The number of attacks increased sharply after security
forces raided a Sunni protest camp near Kirkuk last week,
triggering clashes that quickly spread to other Sunni areas
including the western province of Anbar, which borders Syria and
Jordan.
“The month of April was the deadliest since June 2008. A
total of 712 people were killed and another 1,633 were wounded
in acts of terrorism and acts of violence,” a U.N. statement
read.
The number of civilians killed last month was 434 while the
toll of security forces personnel was 288.
Iraqi authorities published a monthly death toll for April
on Wednesday which was much lower than the U.N. figure. The
Interior Ministry said 245 people, including 84 members of the
security forces, were killed.
Iraqi authorities often report lower estimates for the
number of victims of attacks for unclear reasons but April’s
toll is still the highest since the beginning of the year.
Violence is still well below its height in 2006-07, but
al-Qaeda’s Iraqi affiliate and other Sunni Muslim insurgents are
launching attacks on a daily basis to undermine the power of the
Shi’ite-led government and provoke wider confrontation.
Iraqi politics are deeply divided along sectarian lines,
with Maliki’s government mired in crisis over how to share power
among Shi’ite Muslims, the largest group, Sunnis and ethnic
Kurds who run their own autonomous region in the north.
(Reporting by Raheem Kareem; Writing by Suadad al-Salhy,
Editing by Isabel Coles and Angus MacSwan)
