Death toll in Iraq hits all-time low as July ends
BAGHDAD — With the war in its sixth year, Iraqis are dying at dramatically lower numbers. July saw the lowest civilian toll since December 2005, though a series of suicide bombings this week and rising ethnic tensions in northern Iraq reflect the fragility of the security successes.
The July U.S. toll in Iraq provided another milestone. It fell to its lowest point since the war began, with 11 American deaths as the month drew to a close Thursday after the departure of the last surge brigade.
The change is especially evident at Baghdad's central morgue, a brick building in a mainly Shiite neighborhood.
At the height of the bloodshed, the facility was overwhelmed with the delivery of dozens of bodies on a daily basis.
Relatives were afraid to collect the bodies because militiamen controlled the area.
Only 10 to 15 bodies are now received by the morgue each day, down from an average peak of 125, according to the Health Ministry's general-inspector, Adel Muhsin. He said some of the deaths were from natural causes.
One of those received Thursday was Haidar Hussein Hayawi, a prominent southern leader of the Mahdi Army militia, which was responsible for some of the worst sectarian violence.
An Associated Press tally shows that at least 510 Iraqi civilians and security force members were killed in July, a 75 percent drop from the 2,021 deaths in the same period last year as the U.S. troop buildup aimed at quelling rampant Sunni-Shiite violence was nearing its peak.
The last of five combat brigades sent as part of the so-called surge returned home in July, leaving about 145,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. That's still higher than the roughly 130,000-135,000 who were here before the troop increase.
But the American soldiers appear to be taking on more of a peacekeeping role after many Sunni and Shiite extremists agreed to stop fighting.
The U.S. military has pointed to a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and a truce by anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as playing a large part in the drop in violence, along with the troop buildup and improvements in training Iraqi security forces.
