Word: iraqi
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Published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, the report examined the causes of death for 60,481 Iraqi civilians killed violently during the first five years of the war, using statistics compiled by Iraq Body Count. The findings are surprising to anyone familiar with the regular headlines from Iraq blaring explosions around the country. Executions with firearms, not bomb blasts, have killed most civilians in Iraq. Researchers say 33% of the victims examined in the study died by execution after abduction or capture. And 29% of those victims had signs of torture on their bodies such...
...year starting in 2006. At that time Shi'ite militias, chiefly the Mahdi Army, drew much of the blame for widespread torture and executions as Sunni militants developed a reputation for killing with bombs. But torturing has not been an activity just for militiamen and militants in Iraq. The Iraqi government has consistently faced accusations of torture and maltreatment of prisoners through the years - and still does. The most recent human rights report from the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq cites "continuing reports of the widespread and routine torture or ill-treatment of detainees, particularly those being held...
Mosul emerged as the last major redoubt of the insurgency more than a year ago, when violence began dropping significantly in most of the rest of Iraq. The fear then among U.S. and Iraqi officials chiefly revolved around whether the lingering violence in Mosul would spread southward toward Baghdad and erode the security gains made during the U.S. surge. But that has not happened. In the past year, while Mosul has remained the most violent city in Iraq, the rest of the country, with the exception of Diyala province, has indeed seen the lower levels of violence that...
...other words, Mosul has become a kind of controlled burn in Iraq that does not appear to be an imminent threat to the rest of the country or of great concern to the government of Iraq. If Iraqi officials were truly worried about the fate of Mosul, they would have by now launched a bid to gain full control of the city, much as they did in Basra in March 2008. So if Iraqi security forces appear capable of continuing to manage the insurgency in Mosul - even without a foreseeable victory there - then Iraqi and U.S. officials could reasonably calculate...
...Mosul, however. The Sunni insurgency has found its new, and perhaps permanent, home in Iraq and is highly unlikely to decamp on its own. That means Mosul, or large portions of it, will remain a scene of lawlessness and violence for some time to come, no matter what Iraqi and U.S. officials decide...