Nearly 1000 killed in November in Iraq’s violence

According to figures released by the country’s ministries of health and defense earlier this week, the death toll included 852 civilians, 53 police officers and 43 soldiers.
 
Another 1,349 people were also injured in the attack.
 
The figures indicate that November was one of the deadliest months of 2013, with civilians accounting for about 90 percent of the fatalities.
 
On Sunday, the United Nations warned of growing execution-style killings in Iraq, raising the fears of a return of the death squads in the country that killed thousands of people following the US-led invasion in 2003.
 
Nickolay Mladenov, the special representative of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for Iraq, said in a statement that, “I am profoundly disturbed by the recent surge in execution-style killings that have been carried out in a particularly horrendous and unspeakable manner.”
 
"The Iraqi authorities should take immediate steps to find and hold accountable the perpetrators of these crimes and to implement effective measures to ensure the protection of all citizens," the statement added.
 
On Friday morning, authorities discovered the bodies of 18 kidnapped men dumped in farmland near the town of Tarmiyah, just north of the capital Baghdad.
 
The victims -- among them two tribal chiefs, four policemen and an army major -- had been shot in the head and chest, hours after being seized by a group reportedly wearing military uniform.
 
In October, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned that Iraq is facing a “war of genocide,” blaming al-Qaeda militants for killing thousands of people in the country.
 
Data released by Iraq’s ministries of health, interior and defense on November 1 showed that carnage in the country killed 964 people and injured 1,600 others in October alone.