Iraq Casualty Stats for July 'Obtained;' the Numbers Are Not Encouraging …

According to figures obtained Wednesday from the Iraqi Ministries of Defense and Health, at least 1,652 Iraqi civilians were killed in July, a 33 percent increase compared with June, and the heaviest death toll since American reinforcements were deployed to protect them. On Wednesday alone, ten more people were killed in a bombing attack in the Karrada district of downtown Baghdad.

At least 1,241 civilians were killed in June, which was a month in which there was a 36 percent decline in civilian fatalities.

On the other hand, the number of dead police dropped 24.6 percent in July (to 144), after a significant increase the previous month (191), according to the same sources. As far as the Iraqi Army is concerned, it lost 79 soldiers in July compared to 31 in June; that is to say, its losses almost doubled.

And again, according to Iraqi statistics, the number of insurgents killed was 425 in July, compared to 417 a month earlier (+1.9 percent). The number of arrests, on the other hand, dropped 3.2 percent, going from 2,265 in June to 2,191 in July.

The death toll in July was slightly higher than that of February, when the United States re-enforced its presence in Baghdad within the framework of Washington’s new security plan. Thousands of GIs have been deployed to launch attacks on al-Qaeda bastions in and around Baghdad.

But many of the insurgents seem to have fled these areas of increased security, continuing to launch spectacular attacks in other more isolated areas of the country.

The Iraqi Government refuses to publish official statistics, but these new figures appear to corroborate the resentments of Baghdad’s residents, who reckon that the streets of the capital have become extremely dangerous.

At the same time, according to a report made public by the independent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GOA), the American Government is unable to say what became of 190,000 weapons that were handed out to Iraqi forces between 2004 and 2005.

Americans regularly blame foreign countries like Iran for secretly feeding weapons to militias in Iraq.

Since the invasion of the country in 2003, the United States has financed the Iraqi forces to the tune of up to $19.2 billion, including $2.8 billion for equipment.