Iraq's Deadliest Month
Official Says 3,500 Iraqis Died In July; 19 More Killed In Latest Violence
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The party headquarters of the Iraqi president was left in a wreck of torched cars, in Mosul, Iraq, Aug. 15, 2006, after a suicide bomber attack. The bomber blew up his truck in the car park of the headquarters of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's party, killing at least five civilians and four Kurdish security personnel, officials say. (AP)
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An Iraqi police patrol vehicle drives past a crater on a bridge, caused by a Monday night car bomb, in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday Aug. 15, 2006. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
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U.S. soldiers inspect the damage, after Sunday night explosions in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday Aug. 14, 2006. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
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Iraqis search for their belongings, following a bomb explosion, in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday Aug.16, 2006. (AP Photo/hadi Mizban)
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The sandal of a laborer lies on the road after a bomb explosion, in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday Aug.16, 2006. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ibrahim)
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In Baghdad, deputy Health Minister Adel Muhsin said about 3,500 Iraqis died last month in sectarian or political violence nationwide. Muhsin said he had no comparative figures for other months but added that the July figure was the highest monthly tally of the war.
Last week, the ministry said about 1,500 violent deaths were reported in the Baghdad area alone in July.
Eight people, most of them day laborers waiting for work, were killed when a bomb exploded about 11:10 a.m. in the Nahda district, police Lt. Bilal Ali said. Two other bombs went off Wednesday evening in central Baghdad, killing 11 people and injuring 44, police said.
Clashes broke out in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, when members of the Bani Assad tribe attacked the Basra governor's office, believing provincial officials were behind the killing of a tribal leader Tuesday, according to an official trapped in the besieged building.
The tribesmen fled after British armored vehicles arrived. Basra Gov. Mohammed al-Waeli said one policeman was killed and four others wounded. Seven attackers were arrested, he added.
Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew on the city to allow tempers to cool.
In Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, armed clashes erupted Wednesday between police and assailants in three neighborhoods on the western side of the Tigris River, police Lt. Col. Abdul-Karim Ahmed Khalaf said.
At least five gunmen were killed and six were arrested, he said. Western Mosul is predominantly Sunni Arab, while Kurds dominate in the east of the city.
The clashes occurred one day after a a suicide car bomber killed nine people in an attack on the Mosul headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a Kurdish party headed by President Jalal Talabani.
In other developments:
An Iraqi militant group Wednesday released a video showing a Katyusha rocket purportedly fired at the U.S.-controlled Green Zone in a gesture of solidarity with Shiite guerrillas in Lebanon.
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