Number of Unidentified Bodies Found in Baghdad Rose Sharply in May

[babylonsister]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/world/middleeast/02iraq.html

Number of Unidentified Bodies Found in Baghdad Rose Sharply in May
Khalid Mohammed/Associated Press

In Baghdad, supporters of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, shown in a picture being carried, celebrated the Shiite leader’s return to Iraq.

By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
Published: June 2, 2007

BAGHDAD, June 1 — The number of unidentified corpses discovered in Baghdad soared more than 70 percent during May, according to new statistics from the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, an indication that sectarian killings are rising sharply as militias return to the streets after lying low during the first few months of the troop “surge.”

In May, 726 unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad, many bound and shot in the head or showing signs of torture and execution, compared with 411 during April, according to figures provided by a ministry official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

The Bush administration and military have cited a decline in sectarian killings as proof that the troop escalation is working. And despite May’s increase in corpses, the numbers remain far below the peak of sectarian executions last year. In July and August, for example, a total of 5,106 people died violent deaths in Baghdad alone, according to the United Nations, including 3,391 reported by the city’s morgue.

The new figures also show a decline in the number of deaths of identifiable victims in Baghdad to 344 in May from 495 in April. While victims of car bombs, homemade bombs and mortar strikes can usually be identified, those who are kidnapped, tortured and executed are normally stripped of identification before their bodies are dumped.

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[etherealtruth]

1. The number of unidentified bodies rose

the number of civilian casualties rose, the number of US military casualties rose ... that certainly IS a surge :(

Is this what the Chimp meant by "surge" ?

[malaise]

3. Surging to the grave in

droves. Fuck Bush. Imagine 700+ bodies showing up anywhere in the US?

[etherealtruth]

6. 7 bodies is a major news event here ...

I can't even develop a coherent sentence to express how I feel about 700 murdered people

[malaise]

7. I shook my head and shouted an

expletive.

[cal04]

2. Civilian death toll in Iraq spikes in May

The number of civilians killed in Iraq jumped to nearly 2,000 in May, the highest monthly toll since the start of a U.S.-backed security crackdown in February, according to figures released on Saturday.

Militants blew up a strategic bridge that links Baghdad to the northern cities of Kirkuk and Arbil, and a mortar barrage on the Sunni enclave of Fadhil in mainly Shi'ite eastern Baghdad, killed 10 people and wounded 30, police said.

In Arbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Masoud Barzani, president of Kurdistan, urged Turkey not to send troops into the region to crush Kurdish separatist rebels believed to be hiding there.

An Interior Ministry official, who did not want to be named because he was not authorised to release the figures, said 1,944 civilians were killed in May, a 29 percent hike over April. At least 174 soldiers and policemen were killed in the same period.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL241131.htm

[Ilsa]

4. Geez. I'm surprised the Iraqi Parliment hasn't

required that they all get tattoos for identification. What a horrible state of affairs. I cannot fathom 700 bodies a month showing up in mass dumpings.

[babylonsister]

5. Sad that you should mention that:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-tattoo20apr20,0,1562881.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Iraqis turn to tattoos as indelible IDs
With violent deaths all around them, some Shiites opt for distinctive marks so loved ones could identify them.
By Christian Berthelsen, Times Staff Writer
April 20, 2007

BAGHDAD — The ghastly procession of decapitated corpses and mutilated bodies that has defined death in Iraq drove Firas Adil Saadi to do something that was once the province of convicts and degenerates here: He got a tattoo.

The 28-year-old Shiite Muslim now has a marking on his right shoulder so his family may avoid the despair of not being able to identify his remains. In ornate Arabic calligraphy, it says "My brother Husam," after a cousin who suffered such a fate. Saadi also carries paper identification, but he believes it would be burned beyond recognition in a bombing.

"The idea came to me after seeing these daily incidents during which some corpses are mutilated and distorted, some were even headless, and the fact that the identity cards are either lost or destroyed," said Saadi, a trader who works in Baghdad's Shorja market, which has suffered numerous bombings. "Even the water of the firefighting equipment is destroying them, so I thought about an irremovable identity card, which is the tattoo."

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