Story highlights
Across Iraq, at least 4,137 civilians have been killed since January
U.N.: "We haven't seen such numbers in more than five years"
In June and July, 496 people died in Baghdad violence, the U.N. mission in Iraq says
Bloodshed has unfortunately become commonplace in Iraq. And it reached a fevered pitch this year, the United Nations said in a monthly tally of violent deaths.
At least 4,137 civilians have been killed and 9,865 more injured in the country since January. Add to that hundreds of security personnel.
“We haven’t seen such numbers in more than five years,” said Gyorgy Busztin, a spokesman for the U.N. mission in Iraq.
Sectarian factions bomb and shoot one another on a nearly daily basis, and reports on the violence often fade into the back rows of news coverage, as one month of deadly statistics follows another.
But the dimension of the bloodletting is alarming, the U.N. reminded in its report Thursday.
The U.N.’s total for July was 238. And in June, 258 civilians were killed in Baghdad, the U.N. said.
In those two months, an additional 1,411 people were injured in violence across the city. Across Iraq in those months, violence killed 1,818 people, the U.N. said.
The U.N. on Thursday called out once more to Iraq’s political leaders to stop the mayhem.
It does not want to see Iraq return to a level of death similar to that wrought during active combat.
CNN’s Hamdi Alkhshali and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.