34,400 civilians killed in Iraq last year, says UN

IRAQ: The UN said yesterday that the civilian death toll in Iraq last year was 34,452 - much higher than previous estimates - as an explosion outside a Baghdad university killed a further 65 people.

The bomb at al-Mustansiriya university went off as students were queuing for minivans to take them home at the end of their day's study. About 138 were wounded.

Within an hour, gunmen opened fire in a mainly Shia neighbourhood, killing 11 people and wounding five. The attacks came after 109 bodies were found overnight in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq.

Four US soldiers were also killed yesterday by a bomb in the northwest of the country.

The UN report put the death toll for last year much higher than the 12,357 figure released earlier this month by Iraq's interior ministry and the 22,950 reported by the Washington Post last week, apparently based on Iraqi health ministry statistics. The Iraqi government is reluctant to release figures, partly from embarrassment and partly because it claims they feed the sectarian violence. It has accused the UN of exaggeration in the past.

Asked about the discrepancy between the UN and Iraqi figures, Gianni Magazzeni, chief of the UN assistance mission for Iraq, said the UN's statistics were based on reports from various sources, including hospitals.

The report included veiled criticism of the Iraqi government: "The root causes of the sectarian violence lie in revenge killings and lack of accountability for past crimes, as well as in the growing sense of impunity for ongoing human rights violations.

"It is essential that the state and the government of Iraq are seen as united in their efforts to contain and eventually eradicate sectarian violence."

The Shia-dominated government is often accused of complicity in the violence, allowing Shia death squads to operate with relative impunity.

President Bush said last week he had secured a promise from Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, to tackle sectarian violence.- (Guardian service)