UN stops reporting Iraqi military casualties following Defense Ministry complaint

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) on Saturday stated they would discontinue the publication of military casualty figures following the Iraqi Joint Operation Command’s (IJOC) criticism of inaccurate information published.

UNAMI recently published the number of casualties in Iraq for the month of November, stating there had been about 2,000 military casualty figures.

“A total of 1,959 members of the Iraqi Security Forces (including police engaged in combat functions, Peshmerga, SWAT, and militias fighting alongside the Iraqi Army, not including Anbar Operations) were killed, and 450 were injured (not including casualties from Anbar),” the report stated.

Following the report, the War Media Cell of the IJOC criticized UNAMI for reporting false information.

It also mentioned the “figure was inaccurate and much exaggerated.”

The IJOC called on UNAMI and all other international organizations to get their information from official Iraqi sources.

UNAMI responded and said the “the military figures were largely unverified.”

Moreover, it acknowledged the organization had been relying on a variety of sources, including open ones to obtain military casualty data.

The UN office in Baghdad noted they would “discontinue the publication of military casualty figures unless a sound methodology of verification can be found to better substantiate the figures being reported.”

UNAMI publishes its monthly report on the number of casualties in almost all provinces of Iraq including military and civilian figures.

Iraqi forces are currently fighting the so-called Islamic State (IS) to retake Mosul, the second-largest city in the country occupied by the extremist group in June 2014.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany