April Iraq's deadliest month in almost five years

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/10032814/April-Iraqs-deadliest-month-in-almost-five-years.html



April was Iraq's deadliest month in nearly five years, according to the United Nations, with more than 700 people killed

April Iraq's deadliest month in almost five years
By David Blair
6:01PM BST 02 May 2013

This rising drumbeat of violence reflects an increasingly bitter political conflict. Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister of a Shia-led government, has been accused of naked sectarianism, purging members of the Sunni minority from his administration.

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In March, they (Armed Sunni extremists) destroyed the justice ministry with four bombs, killing at least 20 people. Last year, al-Qaeda was down to a few hundred operatives in Iraq. Today, experts believe it has about 2,000.

The UN's assistance mission, which tracks the level of violence in Iraq, said that "712 people were killed and another 1,633 were wounded in acts of terrorism and acts of violence" during the course of April.

Of the dead, 595 were civilians and a further 117 were security force personnel. Almost 30 per cent of all the killings took place in Baghdad.