Baghdad : A total of 1,039 Iraqis were killed and 2,172 others injured in terrorist attacks and violence in March in Iraq, according to a statement issued on Wednesday by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
The statement said 729 civilians, including 42 policemen, and 268 Iraqi security forces personnel were killed, while 1,785 other civilians, including 98 policemen, and 387 security members were wounded, Xinhua reported citing the UNAMI statement.
The UNAMI excluded the casualties in Anbar province where fierce clashes flared up after Iraqi police dismantled an anti-government protest site outside Ramadi in late December 2013, the statement said.
“In general, UNAMI has been hindered in effectively verifying casualties in conflict areas. The figures reported have to be considered as the absolute minimum,” the statement said.
It added that there are unknown people who died from secondary effects of violence after having fled their homes due to exposure to the elements, lack of water, food, medicine and health care.
The statement noted that the Iraqi capital of Baghdad was the worst affected province with 1,290 civilian casualties (362 killed, 928 injured). While the provinces of Diyala, Salahudin and Nineveh followed in the list.
“I am shocked to see that Iraqis continue to bear the brunt of appalling numbers of casualties caused by successive waves of violence, which are threatening with additional suffering and misery,” the statement quoted UN envoy for Iraq and UNAMI chief Jan Kubis as saying.
“The UN calls upon the government of Iraq to do all it can to ensure that civilians’ safety and security is protected in line with fundamental human rights principles and humanitarian law,” Kubis said.
The security situation in the country has drastically deteriorated since June, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and hundreds of militants from the Islamic State (IS).
The militants took control of the country’s northern city of Mosul and later seized swathes of territories after Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces.
Earlier, a UN report said 2014 has witnessed some of the worst violence in years, leaving at least 12,282 civilians killed and 23, 126 others injured, making it the deadliest year since the flare-up of sectarian violence in 2006-2007.