Baghdad body count escalates

Baghdad's central morgue received more than a 1,000 bodies each month this year. The body count gives a more accurate picture of the story in Baghdad than any official statistics. Before the war, this morgue located at Bab al-Mu'atham near the city center received only about 200 to 300 bodies a month, said Dr. Kais Hassan who has worked at the morgue. There are only three storage rooms and two doctors at the center. Today the morgue is overflowing. On some days more than 100 bodies are interred at the morgue. Killing in Baghdad increased after the occupation, but it has flourished under the militia explosion and the creation of what Iraqis commonly refer to as death squads. "Most of those brought dead here have been tortured by beating, electricity, acid, drills and by other horrible ways," said an Iraqi who refused to give his name. "When any Iraqi is arrested by police now it means we will find his dead body in Baghdad's streets after some days. Because of all this killing, this morgue is not enough." The smell of death is all around the morgue. That and the crowds of crying families searching for their dead are now a ubiquitous sight. "The last manager for this morgue, FaikBakr, received death threats because he said there were more than 7,000 Iraqis killed by death squads in recent months," an employee said. "Most of the dead arrived with their hands tied behind their backs." Ahmed, who was in the crowd outside the morgue with his family, explained why so many families were waiting. "All of them are here to look for their sons, fathers, mothers and friends who disappeared some days before," he said. "Also they look for them because militias wearing police uniforms arrested them. Now in Iraq, if anyone is arrested by militias wearing police uniforms, his family looks for him in the morgue." Bodies arrive at the morgue in the custody of the police convoys many times throughout the day. While a reporter was speaking with Ahmed, two police vehicles arrived, carrying many bodies. After a few minutes of chaos, one man began shouting, "This is my son! He was tortured and killed; I lost him forever!" The body showed many holes. One of the eyes had been removed. "He was a shopkeeper, his shop was in al-Rashid street, and three days ago he was arrested by police, and I find him here, killed." the father, Ali, told reporters. Ali believes his son was killed only because he is Sunni. He said his son was not wanted by the police for any crime. "He was loved by all his friends, and everyone liked him. He was innocent and he did nothing wrong." Near the morgue is a large parking lot. Ramadan, a guard in his forties, is able to watch what goes on all day. "A week earlier they brought more than 100 bodies in one day from al-Taji north of Baghdad, and another day they brought just 20 bodies. There is an average of 50 to 60 bodies everyday." Ramadan is not always an observer from the parking lot. "Many times I helped the workers at the morgue carry bodies inside. It isn't cold enough in there, and they keep the bodies piled one over another. Some of the bodies are on the floor and everywhere else inside the morgue." Nearly 1,400 Iraqi civilians were murdered in targeted killings last month in Baghdad alone, and many more died in indiscriminate bomb blasts, making May the bloodiest month in the capital since the 2003 US invasion, Iraq's Ministry of Health reported. Since 2003, at least 30,240 bodies have been brought to the morgue. Bodies often lie in the streets for hours. In response, many Iraqis are closing their shops, drawing their blinds and staying home, turning once-vibrant neighborhoods into ghost towns. The grim statistics came as more incidents of extreme sectarian violence and civilian killings were reported across Iraq on June 4 alone. In Baquba, residents found seven heads in two banana crates. One more head, that of a Sunni cleric, was perched on top of the boxes, wrapped in plastic and paper as if it were a gift. "This is the fate of every traitor," said a note scribbled on the paper. "Hell will be his final destination." The note said the man had killed four Shiite doctors and was slain in retaliation. Meanwhile in Baghdad that day, police officers and US soldiers recovered at least 22 bodies that had been burned, blindfolded, handcuffed, thrown into a river or dumped near a pediatric hospital. A roadside bomb hit an ambulance in Baghdad, killing a pregnant woman and injuring the driver. Gunmen fired at another ambulance, killing the driver and injuring a medic. Two other roadside bombs injured six police officers. In one of the worst incidents that day, a group of students on their way to exams were among 21 people killed "execution style" in a sectarian massacre by masked gunmen at a bogus checkpoint in Diyala province. The gunmen stopped two minivans, ordered the passengers off, separated Shiites from Sunnis, and killed the 21 Shiites, a surviving witness said. Electrician Haqi Ismail said he had been driving his pickup truck behind the vans and was stopped too. About 15 masked men wearing traditional robes known as a dishdashas forced everyone out of the vehicles, he said. "They asked us to show our IDs, and then instructed us to stand in a line, separating the Sunni from the Shiite due to the IDs and also due to the faces," said Ismail, a Shiite Kurd. He said the gunmen ordered the Shiites to lie down and before they opened fire one shouted, "On behalf of Islam, today we will dig a mass grave for you. You are traitors." Also that day, security forces in the Shiite-run city of Basra were accused of killing 12 unarmed worshippers in a mosque, while police said they had returned fire and shot dead nine "terrorists." The incident came just hours after a car bomb killed 28 people in Basra, challenging a state of emergency declared by Iraq's new prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki. On May 31 Maliki ordered thousands of Iraqi troops to Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, to disarm Shiite militias that have taken control there, a move that underscores how little of the country the central government in Baghdad has secured. Al-Maliki said Iraq's 10th Army Division would set up checkpoints and round up illegal weapons from the assortment of militias, gangs and tribes that had seized control in Basra. He said the state of emergency would last a month. The Pentagon reported the day before that the frequency of insurgent attacks against troops and civilians is at its highest level since US commanders began tracking such figures two years ago, an ominous sign that, despite three years of combat, the US-led occupation forces haven't significantly weakened the Iraq insurgency. In its quarterly update to Congress, the Pentagon reported that from Feb. 11 to May 12, insurgents staged an average of more than 600 attacks per week nationwide. The average number of weekly enemy attacks rose 13 percent from February to April, compared with the previous few months. The vast majority of the attacks were targeted at US-led occupation military forces, but the majority of deaths have been of civilians. The Pentagon report, titled "Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq," called Iraq's enemy elements resilient and complex and suggested little likelihood that they'll be quelled soon.