U.N.: 3,709 Iraqis Killed In October
Highest Monthly Civilian Toll Since War Started; Bush, Al-Maliki To Meet Next Week
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Play CBS Video Video Iraq Civilian Deaths Hit High A U.N. report finds civilian casualties are rising in Iraq. Elizabeth Palmer reports on who's paying the price.
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Video Deadly Raid In Baghdad U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a neighborhood in Baghdad, capturing seven suspected militiamen. But the raid had some unintended victims. Elizabeth Palmer the details.
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Video Diplomatic Breakthrough Neighbors Syria and Iraq have not had formal ties in 24 years. Now Syria has pledged to help the struggling Iraqi government. Elizabeth Palmer reports from Baghdad.
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Iraqis react following a military raid in the Shiite district of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
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(AP / CBS)
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Iraqi women react at their home following a military raid in the Shiite district of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
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Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, left, and Iraq's Foreign Affairs Minister Hoshyar Zebari attend a media conference in Baghdad Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006. (AP Photo)
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will host the Iraqi and Syrian presidents for a weekend summit in Tehran, officials said. (AP Photo)
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
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Who's Who Iraq Insurgency More on the militant groups behind the insurgency in Iraq and their motivations.
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Interactive Attacks Map Details on the insurgency and terrorism that has continued to take lives since the fall of Saddam.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq also said citizens were fleeing the country at a pace of 100,000 each month, and that at least 1.6 million Iraqis had left since the war began.
President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced they will meet Nov. 29-30 in Jordan to discuss the deteriorating security situation in Iraq. "We will focus our discussions on current developments in Iraq, progress made to date in the deliberations of a high-level joint committee on transferring security responsibilities, and the role of the region in supporting Iraq," they said in a statement.
Although collecting accurate statistics in a war zone is impossible, these figures, compiled with the help of the Iraqi health authorities, give some idea of the overall scale and shape of the violence, CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports. One hundred and ten children were killed in the past two months and 351 women, according to this report, are being singled out for abuse by religious extremists.
Life for Iraqis, especially in Baghdad and cities and towns in the center of the country, has become increasingly untenable. Many schools failed to open at all in September and professionals — especially professors, physicians, politicians and journalists — were falling to sectarian killer at a stunning pace.
Three hundred teachers have been killed since the start of the year. About 2 million Iraqis have either left, or been forced from their homes, since the invasion, and 1.5 million have left the country already, Palmer reports. And many of those leaving are the best and the brightest.
Lynchings have been reported as Sunnis and Shiites conduct a merciless campaign of revenge killings. Some Shiite residents in the north of Baghdad neighborhood of Hurriyah claim that militiamen and death squads are holding Sunni captives in warehouses then slaughtering them at the funerals of Shiites killed in the tit-for-tat murders.
"Because the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq is on the ground throughout Iraq, they have a more accurate birds-eye view of the deteriorating conditions," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk from the U.N. "The human rights report covers areas that have not been available from other agencies or the press, including arbitrary detentions and torture."
The U.N. report was released as assassins killed a bodyguard of Iraq's parliament speaker one day after a bomb exploded in the hot-tempered politician's motorcade as it drove into a parking lot inside the fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad. It was a major security breach in the heavily guarded compound that houses the U.S. and British embassies and the Iraqi government.
In other developments:
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."





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See all 110 CommentsIn case you didn't hear, the latest poll (like the one before it) show that the Iraqis want us out. 70%+ of all Iraqis want us out within 6 months, 78% say we're making the situation worse by staying and 61% say they APPROVE of attacks on our troops.
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/250.php?nid=&id=&pnt=250&lb=hmpg1
We do not dishonor the memory of our soldiers by withdrawing, we're honoring what they did over there by letting the Iraqis stand up for themselves, and take away the political thorn of continued US presence out of their side so they can rebuild their country.
Democracy, or whatever it is that they have there now isn't how they've been handling their government for the last uh... couple of decades or whatever and they didn't have a civil war then did they? Sure Sadam was killing all kinds of people sarcasm but if they didn't fight then and all of the sudden they want to fight our "help"? Does that not prove anything?
As for those that still say, "Stay the Course, the Iraqi Army is almost ready", you're not reading the papers. The Iraqi police, and to a somewhat lesser degree, the Iraqi Army, do not exibit any allegiance to the country, but rather, their first allegiance is to their tribe, sect, home village.
They are and will be using their new warfighting education to kill their own, with weapons we provided. Whole Iraqi battalions refuse to be deployed to areas where they can do the most good.
I wouldn't put much faith in the Iraqi security forces, either police or army.
This exerpt appeared today in an article from Rueters:
In Damascus, a Syrian analyst close to the Assad government warned that other countries would intervene if Iraq descended into full-scale civil war. "Iran will get involved, Turkey will get involved, Saudi Arabia, Syria," said the analyst, who spoke on condition he not be identified further.
"Regional war is very much a possibility," said Hiltermann, the analyst for the International Crisis Group. Iraq's neighbors "are hysterical about Iranian strategic advances in the region," he said.
Bush has opened pandora's box. You think $3.50 a gallon of gas was high... you ain't seen nothing yet..
Which site are you talking about?memri or ogrish.Both of these sites are AMERICANS.I know things on those sites are from their perspective and we need to know that.We need to know how many of our soldiers are getting killed every day specially when our own media and govt are telling lies.frankly,I don't care much about Iraqi casualties but I am really concerned about AMERICAN CASUALTIES,WHAT ARE THE REASONS OF THOSE CASUALTIES,HOW CAN WE PREVENT THEM AND WHETHER IT'S GOOD FOR OUR SOLDIERS TO BE IN IRAQ OR NOT?After seeing on those websites that how our soldiers getting killed by unseen enemies either by snipers or by IEDs,you got pissed.Can you imagine how pissed I am when I know that our soldeiers are dying there to remove a SECULAR GOVT of SADDAM and bringing an ISLAMIC RADICAL named MALIKI to form a RADICAL ISLAMIC SHIA EMPIRE.I have no shame in saying that I hate all the religious RADICALISM not only islamic.When I see that our soldiers are dying because some CHRISTIAN RADICALS believe that this war will help the second coming of CHRIST.The people I hate the most are CHRISTIANS.
If the Iraqi population didn't want democracy and don't want Americans there, we would see mass demonstrations! Where are they? The media would jump on that!
Instead, Iraqis are establishing a democratic way of life for themselves.
We must BE PATIENT for these reasons.
The Iraqi government has been in power barely 6 months.
The Iraqi Army and National Police continue to grow (350,000 by year's end) and take the lead in operations (currently 75%).
The number of terrorists and insurgents killed or detained over the past two months and twenty two days is 2173, while 227 US soldiers were killed over the period, a ratio of 9.6 to 1.
It takes time to instill in public servants a loyalty to democracy and the Iraqi government.
It takes time for Iraqi security and police to earn the trust of the Iraqi population.
To withdraw our troops before such loyalty and trust is established will betray the honor and memory of our military personnel who have given their lives in Iraq.
In order to grow and perpetuate itself Islam requires its followers to be an ignorant and uneducated group of gullible sheep, and the culture it promotes succeeds in doing just that - keeping them in the Dark Ages. But that's not enough, Mohhammed's gang wants to drag us all down with them.
Misery loves company.
Selah
The Multi-National Forces-Iraq website shows what's happening that is largely ignored by the media. (www.mnf-iraq.com)
The article ignores these facts:
Building the Iraqi security forces is about 75% complete. See the October 25 article on the complex environment.
320,000 trained Iraqi security forces exist and 355,000 will be by year's end. See November 11 article quoting Maj.Gen. Caldwell.
Successful efforts: see November 5 article on National Police completing 'Quick Look II' and November 4 article on building relationships at the border.
Iraqi forces are RIGHT NOW leading in 75% of the operations. See the November 3 article quoting Caldwell about PM Maliki's plans. See the October 27 article quoting Caldwell regarding Iraqis taking responsibility across Iraq.
Rapid progress is occurring to eliminate terrorists and insurgents: in November so far, 722 terrorists and insurgents have been killed or detained, while 48 US military have been killed, resulting in a ratio of 15 to 1 !!! In October, 791 terrorists and insurgents were killed or detained, while 106 US military were killed, resulting in a ratio of 7.5 to 1. In September, 660 terrorists and insurgents were killed or detained, while 72 US military were killed, resulting in a ratio of 9.2 to 1. See the press releases.
Much progress continues in Iraq. We will win IF we do not wimp out.
I've never been so pissed my whole life like today .You could have called me anything but islamic.I am an athiest and a patriotic AMERICAN who can't see my fellow americans soldiers getting killed by radicals.I don't think we should be in the state of denial.If we don't watch those websites how would we be able to fight against those RADICALS who are killing our soldiers.It's very important to know the enemy before fighting against them.The problem is not that we went aginst one guy hussain,the problem is that we went against a wrong guy who was the best guy for fulfilling our purpose and that was to control ISLAMIC RADICALS under control.One last thing"A SECULAR DICTATOR IN MIDDLE EAST IS MUCH BETTER THEN A DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED RELIGIOUS RADICAL".
anti-government radicals?
The present govt of Iraq is a RADICAL GOVT.Only anti-radical govt in Iraq was the govt of SADDAM HUSSAIN who was a SECULAR DICTATOR and that's why he had killed his own people who wanted to establish a RADICAL ISLAMIC EMPIRE based on the HATRED of WEST.Islamic Radicals have succesfully remove the SECULAR GOVT by the help of USA who has removed a SECULAR SADDAM from power and brought a RELIGIOUS RADICAL named MALIKI on the name of democracy who is taking our TAX MONEY on the name of REBUILDING IRAQ and taking weapons from our govt to supply them to their HIZBOLLAH BROTHERS in LEBANON and MUQTADA AL SADR militia in IRAQ to kill our troops.Current PRIME MINISTER of IRAQ is practically a GOVERNOR from IRAN who takes all the dictations from those RADICAL IRANIAN AYATOLLAHs who call USA"THE GREATEST SATAN".SHIA MUSLIMS believe n the final coming of a MESSIAH whose name will be IMAM MEHDI.That's why the MILITIA of SADR is called MEHDI ARMY.They believe that their IMAM MEHDI will kill all the JEWS and CHRISTIANS from the world.Iraq,by the help of BUSH ADMINISTRATION is very soon gonna become a great ISLAMIC EMPIRE from IRAN in the EAST to LEBANON in the WEST.The killing of a LEBANESE CHRISTIAN LEADER is the start of preparation of their FINAL MESSIAH IMAM MEHDI.
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