Baghdad, Iraq – The United Nations issued a somber report Wednesday on civilian deaths in Iraq, even as at least 71 people were killed or found slain around the country.
Meanwhile, a top U.S. military spokesman said attacks against American troops have increased recently, as have killings by so-called death squads that target civilians.
He also said that American commanders expect violence to escalate even further during the holy month of Ramadan, which begins this weekend.
The U.N. reported that 3,009 people were killed in Iraq during August, a slight decrease from July’s toll of 3,590. The report warned that although the numbers decreased at the beginning of the month, they escalated again by month’s end, especially in Baghdad.
The current level of violence, the report said, “is challenging the very fabric of the country.”
The trend in the national figures echoed recent statements by the Baghdad morgue, whose reports on deaths in the capital are most often cited in tracking civilian casualties from sectarian fighting and the insurgency.
The past few weeks have been even bloodier than usual in the capital, with a torrent of execution-style killings coming despite an American-led crackdown, but even as U.S. commanders have focused on Baghdad, attackers also have struck in northern and western parts of the country in what appears to be a coordinated campaign.
On Wednesday in Samarra, a suicide car bomber crashed into the home of a tribal leader who had recently denounced al-Qaeda.
The blast killed 11 people in his family but not the leader himself. Forty others were injured, according to authorities.
In the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, gunmen assassinated a government worker on his way to work, authorities said.
Seven people were killed in attacks in Diyala province, northeast of the capital, Agence France-Presse reported. Two civilians were killed in separate bombings in southern Iraq.
Attackers also inflicted heavy casualties in the capital.
A suicide bomber driving a truck detonated his explosives near a checkpoint in the Dora neighborhood in southern Baghdad, killing three people and injuring 11. A roadside explosion targeting an American patrol in eastern Baghdad killed one civilian.
Two U.S. soldiers died in Baghdad in separate accidents Tuesday and Wednesday, and a third was shot and killed in northeastern Baghdad on Wednesday, according to statements from the U.S. military.
Police recovered 46 bodies in and near the capital. Some of the bodies bore signs of torture.
