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20,000 Iraqi Civilians Died In Attacks So Far This Year. Violence Has Killed About 6,600 Iraqis During July

Good Morning,

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Violence killed nearly 6,600 Iraqi civilians during July and August, while more than 8,000 were wounded, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq.

More than 20,600 Iraqi civilians have died in attacks so far this year, according to UNAMI.

The carnage included a string of execution-style slayings, mortar and rocket attacks as well as suicide bombings apparently targeting civilians.

Most of the killings detailed in the report released Wednesday happened in Baghdad.

The data was based on information provided by Iraq's Ministry of Health and the Baghdad morgue.

The report said a reduction in casualties in Baghdad between July and August may reflect "a degree of improved security" as a result of Operation Together Forward -- a security clampdown conducted by U.S. and Iraqi forces in several city neighborhoods.

There were 2,884 civilians killed in Baghdad in July. In August, 2,222 people were killed, according to the report.

Last month, the U.S. military reported a dramatic drop in the number of murders, but it has since said that its figures did not include people killed by bombs, mortars or other mass attacks. (Full story)

The new U.N. report came on a day of suicide attacks, bombings and the discovery of more bodies -- as well as the first day of the school year for Iraq's children.(Full Story)

More violence
A suicide car bomber targeted the house of a tribal leader in Samarra Wednesday afternoon, killing eight people -- including a child -- and wounding 28, police said.

Earlier Wednesday, a suicide truck bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance of an Iraqi police base Wednesday, killing four police officers and wounding 11 more in Dora, a southern neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraqi emergency police said.

In addition, three civilians were wounded.

A mortar attack in northeast Baghdad Wednesday also wounded four civilians, police said.

Across the capital, police said they found 35 unidentified bodies in the 24-hour period ending at 6 a.m. Wednesday.

Police said they have found 227 bodies throughout the city in the past seven days.

In addition, a U.S. soldier assigned to Multi-National Division-Baghdad was killed Wednesday morning in northeastern Baghdad by small arms fire, the U.S. military said. With the death, 2,689 U.S. military personnel, including seven American civilian contractors, have died in the Iraq war.

A U.S. military spokesman pointed to a spike in murders and executions in Baghdad during the past week and said it fits a pattern generally seen before the holy month of Ramadan, which begins this weekend.

"That's obviously of great concern to everyone and something that's being looked at carefully," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said Wednesday.

Attacks against American troops have also gone up since the call by al Qaeda in Iraq's leader, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, to target U.S. forces, The Associated Press quoted Caldwell as saying.

Near the northern city of Mosul, a double bombing killed 21 people, AP reported.

A bomb in a parked car detonated Tuesday night near an Iraqi army base in Sharqat, about 45 miles from Mosul, police told the AP. A suicide bomber then set off his explosives as a crowd gathered.

The AP said 50 people were wounded in the bombings.

The violence Wednesday followed a similarly deadly day Tuesday when a rocket attack on a Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad killed 10 people and wounded 19 Tuesday, police told the AP.

Have a nice day.

posted by Wink @ 2:52 PM