News from Iraq this week: 3rd June to 9th June

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In solidarity with the people of Iraq struggling under foreign occupation

Demonstrate Saturday September 23rd at Labour Party Conference in Manchester

Bloody oppression of Iraqi women takes hold

`Democracy assassinated the family that was here`

Graffiti on a wall near the cemetery where the bodies of the 24 men, women and children killed in the Haditha Massacre of November 2005.

News from Iraq this week: June 3^rd to June 9^th

June 3 Excluding the capital`s nearly daily bombings, more Baghdad residents died in shootings, stabbings and other violence in May than in any other month since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The numbers and accounts from residents depict neighborhoods descending further into violence and fear. Last month, 1,398 bodies were brought to the central morgue, according to Ministry of Health statistics, 243 more than April. The count doesn`t include soldiers or civilian victims of explosions, on whom autopsies are not usually conducted. Before the war, this morgue, received only about 200 to 300 bodies a month.

June 4 A US artillery unit fired a round from a military base near Baqubah that landed in an inhabited area. A short time later Iraqi Police reported an explosion at a building in the town that killed 2 Iraqi civilians, injured 4 others and damaged 6 houses. One of the injured civilians was evacuated to a nearby Coalition Force medical facility but later died from her wounds.

June 5 Ministry of Defense officials in London say British troops fired baton rounds on about 100 people who were throwing rocks at them in Basra. However, Iraqi police say the soldiers fired at children throwing stones, killing a 13-year-old boy and wounding a 12 year old girl.

June 6 The Iraqi Islamic Party, the main Sunni Arab political party, accused American forces of murdering more than 24 Iraqis in a series of incidents across the country in May. They report that an air assault on a car killed 6 people and another on a house killed7 people, both on May 13^th. On the following day they reported that a house was bombed, killing 13 people, including women and children.

June 7 Evidence merged that in April Hashim Ibrahim Awad was dragged from his home and shot by US Marines, who placed a shovel and AK-47 next to him to make it appear he was an insurgent.

June 8 Nearly 1,200 angry residents of Babil province took to the streets to protest about poor services. Demonstrators carried banners reading, `We want electricity` and `We demand that the local council resign.` Some also shouted pro-Saddam Hussein slogans, such as `We would sacrifice ourselves for your sake, Saddam.`

June 9 American public doubts over the Iraq war reached a new high in the days before the killing of Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a poll taken this week showed. The poll found that 59 % of the public believed the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was a mistake, 10 percentage points more than a December 2005 poll and the highest level yet. Approval of U.S. President George W. Bush`s handling of the war reached a new low of 33 %, down 4 points from May.

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Civilians reported killed by military intervention in Iraq since invasion*:

Minimum: 38355

Maximum: 42747

Source: Iraq Body Count

Total number of US soldiers killed in Iraq since invasion = 2492

Total number of US soldiers wounded in Iraq since invasion= 18356

Total number of UK soldiers killed in Iraq since invasion = 113

Total number of soldiers from other nations killed since invasion = 113

Source: Iraq Coalition Casualty Count

*This estimate is only of English language media reported deaths. A peer reviewed epidemiological survey (Roberts et al., The Lancet, Vol 364 Issue 9448 pp 1857 1864) estimated that in the 18 months following the invasion 100, 000 excess deaths or more have occurred. Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths. Criticisms of IBC methodology can be found at medialens

For background to the current war in Iraq: see `Understanding the Us-Iraq Crisis` by Phyllis Benis and `Why Another War? A Backgrounder on the Iraq Crisis` by Sarah Graham-Brown and Chris Toensing.

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