1,327 civilians killed, injured in Iraq in January: UNAMI

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdista24) – The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) on Wednesday reported a total of 403 Iraqi civilians were killed and 924 wounded in January due to violence, terrorism, and armed conflicts.

Excluding police personnel, the report mentioned 382 civilians were killed and 908 people injured.

UNAMI noted most of the civilian casualties were from Baghdad where 128 were killed and 444 injured.

Nineveh Province in the north of the country had 187 deaths and another 285 wounded.

Salahaddin Province was the third most affected area with 30 deaths and 45 wounded.

Anbar Province had a total of 143 civilian casualties. Twenty-two people died, and 121 were wounded, according to the UNAMI data obtained from the Anbar Health Directorate.

The report did not reveal the military and security casualties following the Iraqi Defense Ministry’s criticism of the credibility of the figures obtained by UNAMI. 

“The [IS] terrorists have focused their bombing attacks on markets and residential neighborhoods,”   Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq (SRSG) Ján Kubiš stated.

“They have cowardly targeted civilians - women, children, and the elderly who were going about their business or shopping,” he added.

Kubiš mentioned IS had failed to break the will of the Iraqi people due to their resilience “despite the difficulties and hardship, and the steady advances of the Iraqi security forces in the operation to liberate Mosul from the terrorists.”

The number of casualties had decreased compared to the month of December where 386 civilians were killed while 1,066 were wounded, according to UNAMI.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany