The number of civilians killed in Iraq jumped to nearly 2,000 in May, the highest monthly toll since the start of a US-backed security crackdown in February, according to figures released today.
An Interior Ministry official, who did not want to be named, said 1,944 civilians were killed in May, a 29 per cent hike over April. At least 174 soldiers and policemen were killed in the same period.
The death toll was based on statistics compiled by Iraq's ministries of interior, defence and health on the number of people killed and wounded in attacks in Iraq.
After three months of declines, there has been a sharp rise in the number of sectarian murders in Baghdad. Mortar attacks in the capital are becoming deadlier and car bombs remain common.
At least 20 people were killed and dozens injured in two mortar attacks on Shi'ite and Sunni neighbourhoods in Baghdad in the past 48 hours. In today's attack, 10 people were killed and 30 injured in a barrage on the Sunni Fadhil district. Militants also blew up a strategic bridge that links Baghdad to the northern cities of Kirkuk and Arbil.
In Arbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Masoud Barzani, president of Kurdistan, urged Turkey not to send troops into the region to crush Kurdish separatist rebels believed to be hiding there.
Police, who reported fewer than 10 sectarian murders a day in the first weeks of the security crackdown, are now typically reporting 30 or more.