UN says violence in Iraq kills 111 civilians in January

Violence across Iraq has killed 111 civilians in January, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said Thursday.

More than 250 others were wounded in the terror attacks and armed conflicts in Iraq in the past month, the UNAMI said in a statement.

It said the number of casualties did not include Iraqi troops and security members killed and wounded, as the Iraqi military declined to give such information.

Previous figures of security members' casualties released by the UNAMI were dismissed by the Iraqi military as "inaccurate."

The Iraqi capital of Baghdad shared the lion's share of the civilian casualties, with 90 people killed and 233 others injured.

It was followed by the northern province of Nineveh, with 13 killed and seven others wounded, and the eastern province of Diyala, with eight killed and 15 others wounded.

The figures excluded the casualties in Iraq's western province of Anbar, as UNAMI has not been able to obtain the civilian casualty figures from the provincial Health Department for the month, the statement said.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups in Iraq on the United States, which invaded the country in March 2003, under the pretext of seeking to destroy weapons of mass destruction in the country. But no such weapons were found.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)