Despite claims by Washingtons puppet government in Baghdad that security in Iraq has dramatically improved over the past six months, the latest figures compiled by the UNs refugee agency show that many more Iraqis are continuing to flee their war-torn country to neighbouring Syria than are returning.
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The polling company Opinion Research Business (ORB) has released detailed data confirming that the death toll from the Iraq war has exceeded 1 million people more than the total number killed in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
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US officials want their puppet Iraqi government to agree to a long-term status of forces agreement that would give the US military broad authority to conduct combat operations and guarantee civilian contractors specific legal protections from Iraqi law, the January 25 New York Times reported.
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General [David] Petraeus has warned that too fast a drawdown [of US troops] could result in the disintegration of the Iraqi security forces, US President George Bush declared in his January 28 state of the union speech to the US Congress.
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The killing of innocent civilians is policy, Iraq war veteran Mike Blake told a public meeting held on January 19 at the Different Drummer Cafe in Watertown, New York State, near the Canadian border.
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“The death rate in Iraq in the past 12 months has been the second highest in any year since the invasion, according to figures that appear to contradict American claims that the troop ‘surge’ has dramatically reduced the level of violence across the country”, the British Independent daily reported on January 7.
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The US troop death toll in Iraq in November 37 was the lowest since March 2006, when 31 US troops were killed. Nevertheless, 2007 has been the deadliest year on record for the US occupation forces, with 878 troops killed by the end of November 56 more than last year.
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More deadly violence occurred north and south of Baghdad as insurgents appeared intent on sending a message to US and Iraqi officials that their recent expressions of confidence in the nations security were premature, the November 24 Los Angeles Times reported, adding that the attacks were marked by hits on targets that lately had escaped attack.
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A US military convoy opened fire on a column of cars Sunday morning, killing at least two Iraqi civilians in southern Iraq and igniting a new round of anger over the apparent loss of innocent life, the US McClatchy Newspapers chain reported on November 18. Police charged that the shootings were unprovoked and said six people, including two Iraqi policemen, died in a barrage of bullets.
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This month marks the third anniversary of the massive US military assault on the rebel Iraqi city of Fallujah, 55 kilometres west of Baghdad. A year after the US assault, the New York Times described Fallujah as virtually a police state. Little has changed in the two years since. The October 14 Chicago Tribune described Fallujah as a place under 24-hour lockdown, surrounded by berms and barbed wire.
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The November 2 British Independent reported that US- NATO ally Turkey has started to impose economic sanctions on Iraqi Kurdistan by stopping flights between Istanbul and Irbil, capital of the Kurdistan autonomous region in northern Iraq.