By Xinhua
Baghdad : The death toll of Iraqis killed in violence across the country dropped to its lowest level during December last year, government data showed on Tuesday, as few people celebrated the New Year in some parts of Baghdad.
The data compiled by the Interior Ministry showed that a total of 1153 people were killed across Iraq, including some 244 in Baghdad alone.
The total number did not include the death toll in three Kurdish provinces in the northern autonomous region, Sulaimaniyah, Arbil and Duhuk, the ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The new figures of casualties are the lowest since Washington begun its surge of an extra 30,000 troops in Iraq early in 2007 to take part in the country’s major security plan aimed at curbing insurgency and sectarian strife.
Observers attributed the low level of casualty to the U.S. troops surge, the rifts that emerged between the Sunni Iraqi insurgents and the al-Qaida network in Iraq and the ceasefire declared by the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr for his Mahdi Army militia.
Despite the decrease of violence in the Iraqi capital, dozens of people took the streets in Karradah neighborhood in central Baghdad to celebrate the New Year under stern security measures.
Many Iraqi families spent their New Year night in the capital’s main hotels of Sheraton and Palestine and some other young people came out in the nearby streets with fireworks to celebrate the event.
Editor: Song Shutao