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Old May 25th 04, 06:15 AM
X98
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Default Death toll now 10 times 9/11

THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS!

Soon Bush will have murdered more people than any man known to man. He
is a beast who, God says, will one day, 42 months after he declares
marshal law, come to his end and no one will help him!


Nemo Me Impune Lacessit

Ali Andrew X98
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WACOun...ed/message/712

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Death toll now 10 times 9/11
From correspondents in Baghdad
May 25, 2004

MORE than 5500 Iraqis died violently in just Baghdad and three
provinces in the first 12 months of the US-led occupation, according
to a survey by international news agency Associated Press.

The toll from both criminal and political violence ran dramatically
higher than violent deaths before the war, AP reported yesterday,
citing morgue statistics.

There were no reliable figures for places such as Fallujah and Najaf,
that had seen heavy fighting since early April. Indeed, there is no
precise death toll for Iraq as a whole, nor is there a breakdown of
deaths caused by the different sorts of attacks.

But the AP survey of morgues in Baghdad and the provinces of Karbala,
Kirkuk and Tikrit found 5558 violent deaths recorded from May 1, 2003,
when US President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat
operations, to April 30.

The survey was not a comprehensive compilation of the nationwide death
toll, but was a sampling intended to assess the levels of violence.
Figures for violent deaths in the months before the war showed a far
lower rate.

That does not mean Iraq is a more dangerous place than during Saddam
Hussein's regime. At least 300,000 people were murdered by security
forces and buried in mass graves during his 23-year rule, US officials
say, and human rights workers put the number closer to 500,000.

Even so, the morgue figures, which exclude trauma deaths from
accidents such as car crashes and falls, highlight the insecurity
Iraqis feel from the criminal and political violence, and underline
the challenges facing coalition forces.

In Baghdad, a city of about 5.6 million, 4279 people were recorded
killed in the 12 months to April 30, according to figures provided by
Kais Hassan, director of statistics at Baghdad's Medico-Legal
Institute, which administers the city's morgues.

The figure does not include most people killed in terrorist bombings,
when the cause of death is obvious so bodies are usually not taken to
the morgue, but given directly to victims' families. Also, the bodies
of killed fighters from militia groups such as Mehdi Army are rarely
taken to morgues.

The death toll recorded by the Baghdad morgue was an average of 357
violent deaths each month from May through April. That contrasts with
an average of 14 a month for 2002, Mr Hassan said.

The toll translates into an annual homicide rate of about 76 killings
for every 100,000 people. By comparison, Bogota, Colombia, reported 39
homicides per 100,000 people in 2002, while New York City had about
7.5 per 100,000 last year.

Iraq's neighbour, Jordan, with a population a little less than
Baghdad's, recorded about 2.4 homicides per 100,000 in 2003.

Other morgues visited by AP reporters also reported big increases in
violent deaths. In Karbala, population 1.5 million, 663 people were
killed from May to April, or an average of 55 a month, compared with
one a month in 2002.

Tikrit, population 650,000, recorded 205 deaths in the same period, or
an average of 17 a month. Morgue official Najat Khorshid Sa'id said no
one died from violence in 2002. In Kirkuk, a population of 1.5 million
people, 401 people were killed, or an average of 34 a month, compared
with three a month in 2002.

The Associated Press