Iraqis Toll Hits Record High :UN

3,709 Iraqi civilians were killed in October, the highest monthly toll since the US-led invasion. (Reuters)

"The number of civilians violently killed in the country was 3,345 in September, including 195 women and 54 children, and 3,709 in October, including 156 women and 56 children," the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said in a report posted on its website.

In its latest report on the human rights situation in Iraq for the months of September and October, UNAMI said 7,054 civilians were violently killed, with no less than 4,984 in Baghdad alone.

"The civilian population of Iraq continues to be victims of terrorist acts, roadside bombs, drive-by shootings, cross fire between rival gangs, or between police and insurgents, kidnappings, military operations, crime and police abuse."

The soaring civilian death toll was largely blamed on sectarian violence.

"Sectarian violence seems to be the main cause," said the bimonthly report of the UN which is based on data collected by the Iraqi Health Ministry.

In a report issued on September 1, the US Defense Department said sectarian attacks in Iraq rose by 24 percent to 792 per week.

United Nations and Iraq medical sources estimate that more than a 100 people are dying daily in sectarian violence across the country.

A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have lost their lives since the March 2003 invasion than would have otherwise happened.

The study found a steady increase in "excess deaths" since the invasion, with a steeper rise in the last year that appears to reflect a worsening of violence.

Militias

The UN report cited growing numbers of tortured unidentified bodies which turn up in various areas around the capital as influential militias continue to hold sway.

"Hundreds of bodies continued to appear in different areas of Baghdad handcuffed, blindfolded and bearing signs of torture and execution-style killing," it stressed.

"Many witnesses reported that perpetrators wear militia attire and even police or army uniforms."

Last week, militiamen wearing police-style uniforms stormed the Ministry of Education and abducted scored of employees.

Higher Education Minister Abed Dhiab al-Ujaili, a Sunni Arab, said 75 people -- 40 of them his ministry's staff -- were taken hostage.

Kidnappers tortured many of the hostages and killed some of them, said the minister.

The top US commander in the Middle East, General John Abizaid, revealed that he had pressed embattled Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, to disband the militias "very soon" just a day before the mass kidnapping.

UNAMI warned in a report on September 21 that civilian torture and killing in Iraq was surging in an alarming daily rate in detention centers as well as by rampant sectarian-oriented militias across the country.

Displaced

The new 26-page report paints a grim picture of the country, asserting that worsening security and increasing poverty has caused "unparalleled" population movement.

"The numbers of displaced persons continued to grow steadily.

"Entire communities have been affected to various degrees and, in some areas, neighborhoods have been split up or inhabitants have been forced to flee to other areas or even to neighboring countries in search of safety," the report said.

United in distress, Iraqi Sunni and Shiite families are trading their homes to escape a deadly sectarian violence, cherishing the hope of returning to their neck of the woods.

Others have been flocking to state registry believing that name changing is the best protection.

The UN report asserted that in addition to those displaced inside the country nearly 100,000 Iraqis were fleeing to neighboring Syria and Jordan every month.

It put at 1.6 million the number of Iraqis estimated to have sought refuge outside their country since the invasion.

The International Organization for Migration said recently that the number of Iraqis fleeing their homes to escape sectarian strife was rising dramatically, and has reached almost 9,000 per week.

Women Strive  

Violence, poverty, and unemployment are reported to continue to aggravate the situation of women in the country. (Reuters)

The UNAMI report maintains that women are facing a terrible reality in war-ravaged Iraq as more women are becoming victims of abduction, rape and murder.

"Incidents of honor killings, kidnappings associated with rape and sex slavery, and killing of women and children for sectarian reasons were reported in Kurdistan, Kirkuk and Mosul."

The report says that violence, poverty, unemployment, growing tensions and displacement are taking their toll on women in the country.

"There are increasing numbers of widows without a reliable source of income and few work opportunities."

The report cites a worrying trend of female suicides and attempted suicides as a result of family conflicts.

Women situation is increasingly deteriorating, echoed the Iraqi National Council of Women.

"Many women activists have been murdered, many women university professors. Many women physicians have been killed, women in the police forces, reporters and journalists," said Rajaa al-Khuzai, the council president.

Al-Khuzai, a trained gynecologist who was one of the first women in Iraq's interim Governing Council and a member of the constitution drafting committee, said 3,000 Iraqi women are widowed every month.

"All of them are young and have no support for them and their families."

• Click here to read the UN report in full