34,000 Iraqi civilians killed in 2006, U.N. reports

NCfan wrote:

Nobody knows the exact figures, but I think it is important to point out that the vast majority of these dead Iraqi civillians were not killed by American forces. Most were killed by their fellow Iraqis. The U.S. is not going around setting off bombs in markets, that is for sure. It seems to me most everytime I read about Iraqi's getting killed, it's becuase of an IED going off in a neighborhood, etc - not becuase Iraqi's were involved in a gun battle with US troops.

America had a civil war about 150 years ago, and we killed well over a million of our own before all was said and done. There were families divided with son fighting father and brother fighting brother in some cases. This is what is going on in Iraq right now, except for one HUGE difference!

It is important to point out that when Americans faught Americans, we formed armies and they fought each other. It was soldier versus soldier. In Iraq, civilians are targeted MORE than other combatants. Think about how savage this is you guys!!!!!! It just chaps my ass when people on here talk about how Americans are murderers. Do you even realize the barbaric nature of the civil war going on there now?

So basically, I would just like to point out that America is not the total bad guy here that we are made out to be. We tried to do something good, but we botched our effort and set off a civil war that has been brewing for three decades. That was our fault, and that is where we should take the full blame.

Yes, our soldiers have killed. But what we have done bad (Abu Ghraib, etc.) looks like Christmas morning compared to the violence that is raging now. But most people on this board just excuse the beheadings and bombings in neighborhood markets as the fault of the United States. It's like the Iraqi's can commit the most heinous crimes imaginable and people just point the finger at America.

I just hate how everybody is frustrated at what is going on in Iraq right now, but they put the large majority of the blame on the US. People act like Cheney and Bush are drooling over the people dying in Iraq and the Haliburton contracts that are being signed. As if as soon as they leave office in 09, they're gonna buy a private island and leave.....

I support this war and I always have, but i freely admit that our administration and the military leadership has botched the hell out of this effort. And YES, I do believe that some of the mistakes are borderline criminal.... But none-the-less... so much of the rhetoric that comes from the anti-war camp is just irresponsible non-sense!!!


POSTED: 8:56 a.m. EST, January 16, 2007
Story Highlights• NEW: "Massive" car bomb near university kills at least 15 in Baghdad
• U.N. report says more than 34,000 civilians "violently killed" in Iraq in 2006
• Death toll for November-December slightly lower than previous two months
• At least 38 killed and 135 wounded Tuesday by bombs in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- More than 34,000 civilians were "violently killed" across Iraq last year, with an average of 94 killed every day, according to a new United Nations report.

The grim figures came on a day when bombs, including a "massive" car bomb near a university, killed at least 38 Iraqis in Baghdad.

The bimonthly Human Rights Report of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, covering November and December, tallied the casualties of nearly a year of relentless sectarian strife, which skyrocketed after the bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra on February 22.

"According to information made available to UNAMI, 6,376 civilians were violently killed in November and December 2006, with no less than 4,731 in Baghdad, most of them as a result of gunshot wounds," the report said.

"Compared to the number killed in September and October, there has been a slight reduction. It is evident however that violence has not been contained but has continued to claim a very high number of innocent victims. During 2006, a total of 34,452 civilians have been violently killed and 36,685 wounded."

The report said the "situation is particularly grave in Baghdad" and that "sectarian violence, especially in Baghdad, is singled out as a major cause for an ever-growing trend in displacement and migration of all Iraqis, as well as the targeting of various professional groups, including educators, medical professionals, journalists, judges and lawyers, religious and political leaders."

Dozens killed, wounded in Baghdad bombings
In Baghdad on Tuesday, 38 people were killed and 135 wounded in four bombings, according to Iraqi Interior Ministry officials.

A massive car bomb exploded outside the Mustansiriya University in northeastern Baghdad about 4 p.m. (8 a.m. ET), killing at least 15 people and wounding 45 others, an Interior Ministry official said.

In two of the other incidents, two bombs were timed to detonate in the same area minutes apart, an official said.

The deadliest attack happened at midday when a bomb exploded near an Iraqi police convoy along a main road in central Baghdad, the official said.

When police and others responded to that blast, a second bomb exploded nearby, killing and wounding them. At least 15 people were killed and 70 wounded by the two bombs, the official said.

About two hours earlier, two Iraqi police officers who helped defuse a car bomb in central Baghdad's Karrada section were killed when another bomb hidden nearby exploded, the official said.

Two civilians were also killed in the blast, the official said. Ten people, including three policemen, were wounded by that bomb, the official said.

In Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood Tuesday, a bomb left inside a minivan killed four people and wounded 10 others, an Interior Ministry official said.

The blast occurred about 100 to 200 yards away from the main office of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mehdi Army is considered one of the major participants in the Iraqi capital's raging sectarian violence.

Sadr City is overwhelmingly Shiite, and has been the scene of much violence.