Reply #18: Civilians in Iraq Flee Mixed Areas as Attacks Shift

[struggle4progress]

By EDWARD WONG and KIRK SEMPLE
Published: April 2, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 1 — The war in Iraq has entered a bloodier phase, with the killings of Iraqi civilians rising tremendously in daily sectarian violence while American casualties have steadily declined, spurring tens of thousands of Iraqis to flee from mixed Shiite-Sunni areas. <snip>

About 900 Iraqi civilians died violently in March, up from about 700 the month before, according to military statistics and the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, an independent organization that tracks deaths. Meanwhile, at least 29 American troops were killed in March, the second-lowest monthly total since the war began. <snip>

The Iraqi public's reaction to the violence has been dramatic. Since the shrine bombing, 30,000 to 36,000 Iraqis have fled their homes because of sectarian violence or fear of reprisals, say officials at the International Organization for Migration, based in Geneva. The Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration estimated that at least 5,500 families have moved, with the biggest group being 1,250 families settling in the Shiite holy city of Najaf after leaving Baghdad and Sunni-dominated towns in central Iraq. The families are living with relatives or in abandoned buildings, and a crisis of food and water shortages is starting to build, officials say. <snip>

Dozens of bodies, garroted or executed with gunshots to the head, are turning up almost daily in Baghdad alone ... <snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/world/middleeast/02iraq.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5087&en=13dcaed8d59af1be&ex=1144209600

Some info + muddled analysis ...