Lily Hamourtziadou is a researcher on the IBC team who is responsible for the daily scanning and collection of press and media stories.
4 Mar 2007
A Week in Iraq
A week by week assessment of significant incidents and trends in Iraqi civilian casualties by Lily Hamourtziadou. The analyses and opinions presented in these commentaries are personal to the author. Email lily@iraqbodycount.org
Security and other plans
A limited raid in the Jamila section of Sadr City took place on Sunday, when 600 US soldiers and 550 Iraqi troops, backed by a column of armoured vehicles, conducted a door-to-door search for weapons. Sundays operation was described as a first step towards establishing a permanent US-Iraqi security station within Sadr City. At least 15 stations have already been established in other neighbourhoods of Baghdad, according to the US military, and several more are planned.
The peaceful raid, during which not a shot was fired and no arrests were made, is part of the new security plan that came into force three weeks ago, a plan that has been somewhat effective. The figures for February show no sign of this, as 2,720 were reported dead, an average of 97 a day, which is worse than January, when 2,800 were killed, an average of 90 a day. Moreover, while there were only 2 major attacks in January, there were 5 in February.
There was a marked decrease in violence this week, however, when around 450 civilians died.
On Monday 26 February 66 civilians are reported dead, 12 killed at an explosion at an Iraqi Ministry during a ceremony attended by the Vice President. In Ramadi 15 are killed by a suicide bomber who blows up an ambulance at a police station; 3 children die in the attack. In the streets of Baghdad 25 bodies are found.
Around 70 die on Tuesday 27 February, 3 at a Baghdad restaurant, 5 in an ice cream shop, 5 in an explosion in Suwayra, and 8 policemen are killed by a suicide bomber in a truck in Mosul. In Baghdad 31 bodies are found bound and tortured. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates declares we clearly have no desire for permanent bases in Iraq.
On Wednesday 28 February over 60 die; 10 are killed by a car bomb near a vegetable market in Bayaa, Baghdad; another 13 in various incidents around Baghdad, while 18 bodies are found in Baghdad, Mosul, Tikrit and Himreen. In Karbala 60 unidentified bodies are buried.
Thursday 1 March has the highest death toll of the week: there are 81 reported civilian deaths. Among the victims are 8 wedding guests killed by a car bomb in Falluja, while celebrating the wedding of a policeman. Another 7 people die at a market bombing in Mahaweel, and 35 bodies are found in Baghdad, Balad and Baquba.
Friday 2 March has the lowest death toll of the week: only 45 are reported dead. In Sadr City 10 die near a used car market, when a car bomb explodes, while 2 football players are shot dead during a match. In Baquba the bodies of 14 policemen, abducted the previous day, are found bound and tortured. Another 12 bodies are found in Baghdad, Yathrib and Iskandariya.
On Saturday 3 March 67 are killed, including 6 Sunnis from the same family shot dead by gunmen in Yusufiya, after attending a reconciliation meeting with Shias. A child and 3 women are blown up by a roadside bomb near Latifiya, a suicide bomber kills 12, a child among them, at a police checkpoint in Ramadi, and police find 28 bodies in Baghdad, Baquba, Mosul and Kirkuk.
On Sunday 4 March 58 are killed, including 7 policemen in al-Baghdadi, 6 people in Muqdadiya and 30 bodies in Baghdad and Mosul.
The new security plan is not the only plan that seems to be working. The governments resettlement plan has helped as many as 1,000 families to return to Madaen, Shaab and Mahmudiya, according to the Migration Ministry. They are still a small portion of the total number of displaced; across Iraq as many as 540,000 people have fled their homes since February 2006.
Al-Malikis next reconciliation plan hinges on an international conference, called by the Iraqi government, to take place in Baghdad during the coming week. Scheduled for 10 March, the conference will be attended by the foreign ministers and representatives from the USA, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Russia, China, Britain, France, as well as the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. Foreign Minister Hoshiar Zebari said the initial mid-level meeting would be a chance for Western and regional powers to try to bridge some of their differences on Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki is also hoping the conference will bring reconciliation and support for his government.
Meanwhile, living conditions are still deteriorating for Iraqi citizens. It was announced this week that the last major British charity working in Iraq is pulling out, as the worsening security situation makes it impossible to safeguard staff. Save the Children UK has announced that, after 15 years in the country, it is to shut its office, as it can no longer reach the children it tries to help. The charity repaired and equipped schools and hospitals in the aftermath of the invasion, and lobbied for childrens rights to be included in the new Iraqi constitution. Many other British charities have already pulled out of Iraq; Care International closed its operations there in 2005, after the abduction and murder of Margaret Hassan, its director in Iraq. This is very bad news for Iraqi children, because they desperately need help and care. Children in Iraq form 50% of the population and around 8% are estimated to suffer from acute malnutrition. Poverty and insecurity are the main causes of their deteriorating diets. With insecurity forcing the closure of many health centres, and hospitals and clinics lacking medicines and specialists, Iraqs population is increasingly being cut off from access to proper healthcare, say officials at UNICEF and the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR.
Iraq may need all the plans its government can come up with.
Permalink: http://www.iraqbodycount.org/editorial/weekiniraq/33/
Map of Iraq

Iraqi Brigadier General Qassim Atta al-Mussawi reported that ''Operation Law and Order'' (Arabic: ''Fardh Al-Qanoon'') has been successful in curbing violence in the capital.  Coalition forces have swept through various Baghdad neighborhoods in the past few months.  Atta, a spokesperson for the operation cited comparative statistics for the four-week periods of mid-January to mid-February versus mid-February to mid-March:
* Civilian killing: 1440 to 265
* Roadside bombings: 163 to 102
* Carbombs: 56 to 36
* Mortar attacks: 204 to 109
* Assassination incidents: 519 to 22
* Kidnappings: 98 to 10

It is not clear what these numbers are based on, and independent estimates of the death toll are much higher. According to data compiled by Iraq Body Count (IBC), a volunteer project that maintains a database of civilian deaths in Iraq from media reports, at least 393 people died in and around Baghdad between February 15 and March 11.

The ''New York Times'' estimates 450 Iraqi civilian deaths in and around the capital in the period, using initial reports provided by hospitals and the Iraqi Interior ministry.

The Associated Press reports that deaths from bombings have dropped by a third (528 to 370) after the start of the operations. It also reports that the number of bodies found in Baghdad, believed to be victims of sectarian death squads, has dropped from more than 200 a week to about 80 a week.

At a separate news-conference, US military spokesperson Major General William Caldwell said the security plan is showing signs of progress. "The murders and executions have come down by over 50 percent," Caldwell said. He did acknowledge that reduced violence in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood may be linked to the absence of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who he said was still in neighboring Iran as of 24 hours ago.

All this comes as the United States Congress is debating resolutions on re-deploying troops from Iraq.  The troop surge has also been in recent debate on whether or not it is the right move as of now.  Meanwhile the United Kingdom announced that it would start withdrawing soon.