“Human rights in Iraq are being “severely undermined” by growing insecurity, violence and a “breakdown of law and order” caused by militias and criminal gangs, the U.N. mission here said Tuesday.
The human rights update, issued every two months by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq, cited soaring numbers of execution-style killings in Baghdad. Such slayings have increased during a surge of sectarian violence that followed the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra on Feb. 22.
Baghdad’s main morgue — which handles only the remains of victims of violent or suspicious deaths, not including bombing victims — issued 1,155 death certificates in April, the U.N. agency reported.” [Read more]