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Death toll from violence hits 979 in Iraq in October

02 November 2013 02:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The death toll from violence in Iraq in October was 979, the same number as in the previous month, according to a statement released by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) on Friday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The statement said that 852 civilians and 127 members of the Iraqi Security Forces were killed in terrorist and violent acts in October, while 1,902 people were wounded, including 1,793 civilians and 109 security members.

Baghdad was the worst-affected province with 411 people killed and 925 others injured, followed by Nineveh, Salahudin, and Anbar, while other provinces of Diyala, Kirkuk, Babil, Wasit, Muthana and Basra reported less casualties, it said.

In September, a total of 979 people were killed and 2,133 others were wounded in acts of terrorism and violence in Iraq, according to casualty figures released by the UNAMI last month.

As the bloodshed continues in the country, Nickolay Mladenov, special representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Iraq and head of the UNAMI, called upon the country's leaders to make necessary efforts to end the violence, it added.

"Indiscriminate violence is constant. Every day, every week, every month dozens, if not hundreds of innocent Iraqis are killed or deeply wounded. This is senseless," Mladenov said. "It is urgent that the Iraqi leaders take together the necessary bold steps to bring an end to the current mayhem, and to foil attempts by terrorists to destroy the social fabric of the Iraqi society."

In the past months, Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in recent years and the al-Qaida front in Iraq, in most cases, was responsible for such massive attacks, raising fears that the terrorist group and other militiamen could return to widespread violence, particularly as Iraq is trying to fend off the spillover of the escalating violence in neighboring Syria.