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Gen. Caldwell Lie: murders in Baghdad declined by 52 percent
NY Times
By PAUL von ZIELBAUER
September 7, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 7 — More than 1,500 violent deaths were recorded in Baghdad in August, a morgue official said today, making the month less violent than July but undermining earlier reports of a sharper drop in deaths.

The morgue official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, said 1,535 bodies were processed in August, about the same number as in June and a 17 percent reduction from July. The total of 1,855 bodies in July made it the deadliest month for civilians since the American-led invasion in 2003.

The morgue's August total conflicts with a sense among many Baghdad residents that death rates had recently ebbed, and it casts doubt on the effectiveness of a four-week American military operation to reduce violence in several of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods. The morgue figures also undermine recent claims by American military officials that Baghdad's murder rate had plummeted as a result of American-led security operations in western Baghdad.

On Thursday, for instance, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the military's top spokesman, wrote on a military Web site that since Aug. 7, murders in Baghdad had declined by 52 percent compared with the daily rate in July. But that lower rate does not include dozens, perhaps hundreds, of civilians who died violently in August.

In finding a 52 percent reduction, the military counted only murders of individuals "targeted as a result of sectarian-related violence," including executions, said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the American military here. Killings from other violent acts, like car bombings and mortar attacks, were not counted, he said.

The Baghdad morgue's monthly body count, which American military officials have said they must stabilize if Iraq is to become a nation that can function independently, has become a powerful indicator of how much security the government and military have brought to the city.

Lt. Col. Johnson said he could not comment on the morgue's August death toll or whether it contradicted the military's view that murders have dropped precipitously. But on Wednesday, Gen. Caldwell told reporters that "the cycle of retaliatory violence has been slowed in the target areas as we have specifically focused our efforts here within the Baghdad area."

On Aug. 31, Iraq's National Security Adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, said execution-style killings and sectarian violence had dropped by 45 percent during the previous six weeks. "There's definitely a much better sense of security among the general public," The Associated Press quoted him saying.

In Baghdad on Thursday, the office of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki said it had imposed a one-month ban on the al-Arabiya television network as punishment for biased reporting.

A government spokesman, Yaseen Majeed, said the station, based in the United Arab Emirates, had delivered several false reports about sectarian killings and bombings in Baghdad. "We warned them in July, in an official letter, not to incite violence and sectarian unrest," Mr. Majeed said. "We asked them to abide by the standards of professionalism."

But it was unclear how immediate or effective the ban was. Arabiya's assignment editor in Baghdad, Nageeb Bin al-Shareef, said late this afternoon that his office had not been officially notified of the government ban and that, in any case, al-Arabiya was continuing its broadcasts from the fortified Green Zone here.

Also in Baghdad Thursday, the police reported finding 24 bodies from several neighborhoods, an Interior Ministry spokesman said, and a series of bombings throughout the day killed at least 19 people.

At about 7:30 a.m., a roadside bomb near the mosque in the Cairo neighborhood killed three people and injured 16 others, an Interior Ministry official said. At around 9:30 a.m. Thursday, a suicide bomber blew up a car near a group of Iraq police vehicles filling their tanks at a gas station in the Karrada district of Baghdad, killing 10 people -- including police officers -- and injuring 17, the official said.

At 10:45 a.m., one mile north of the gas station, two more people were killed and 23 injured when a second suicide bomber exploded a car in the Bab al-Sharji district, near the Interior Ministry's headquarters. At 3:30 p.m., a third suicide car bomber blew up a vehicle in the Kadisiya neighborhood near a police convoy, wounding seven police commandos, the interior official said. At 7:15 p.m., a roadside bomb killed a woman and injured 13 others in the Amil district.

On Wednesday, the nephew of the Parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, Ahmad al-Mashhadani, was abducted while driving his car in northwest Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said. Also Wednesday, an roadside bomb targeting a funeral of a Shiite militia leader killed two people.

The American military announced the deaths of two soldiers and a marine Thursday.

In Anbar Province west of Baghdad, a marine assigned to the First Marine Logistics Group died Thursday from injuries from hostile fire on Wednesday, the military said, and soldier with the First Brigade, First Armored Division died on Wednesday, also from hostile fire.

In Hawija, north of Baghdad, a soldier with the Third Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division was killed by gunfire during a mission Wednesday, the military said.

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