1,115 Iraqi civilians killed, injured in March: UN

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The number of civilian casualties in Iraq increased for the month of March with a total of 548 civilians killed, and 567 wounded, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

The number of casualties does not exclude Iraqi military and security forces.

According to UNAMI, Nineveh was the most affected province in Iraq with 541 civilian casualties—367 were killed, and 174 injured.

Baghdad Province was the second most affected with 84 people killed and 246 injured.

Salahaddin was the third most affected province with 38 civilians killed and 69 wounded.

Anbar Province suffered a total of 90 civilian casualties, according to the UNAMI information obtained from the Health Directorate in Anbar.

Iraq had a total of 1,005 civilian casualties during the month of February where 392 of them were killed and 613 more wounded.

Jan Kubis, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, condemned the Islamic State (IS) attacks on civilians.

Additionally, Kubis commended the efforts of the federal government of Iraq in protecting civilians while the battle was ongoing inside Mosul.

“The terrorists have used every possible wicked way to inflict casualties on civilians,” Kubis stated. “Two car bombs killed or wounded many in the Baghdad area last month.”

“In western Mosul, [IS] terrorists have forcibly transferred civilians, holding them as human shields as they retreated or at strategic locations in densely populated areas,” the UN official continued.

“In cases, [IS] has placed civilians in booby-trapped buildings that its terrorists used to launch attacks on government forces, shot at civilians attempting to flee to Iraqi security lines or deliberately shelled civilian areas,” Kubis concluded.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany