The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) announced that a total of 1,375 people, mostly Iraqis, were killed in terrorist attacks and violence in Iraq last month. Of the total fatalities in January, the UNAMI said about 790 were civilians, 59 were policemen and 585 were Iraqi security forces personnel. At least 2,240 others were also injured, including 1,469 civilians, 69 policemen and 771 security members in terrorist and violent acts during the month, the UN report said. The Iraqi capital of Baghdad was the worst affected province with 1,014 civilian casualties - 256 killed and 758 injured. The provinces of Anbar came in as second most affected with 779 casualties - 195 killed and 584 injured. The UNAMI report underlined the fact that UN personnel were not able to effectively verify casualties in most conflict areas, thus the report represents just the absolute minimum. “There are unknown persons who have died from secondary effects of violence after having fled their homes due to exposure to the elements, lack of water, food, medicine and health care,” the UNAMI statement said. For the entire 2014, the UN report showed that 12,282 civilians were killed and 23,126 others were injured in the different terroristic and violent acts in Iraq, making the year the deadliest year since 2006. While most in the international community thought that the violence in Iraq had ended with the arrest and death of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the UN agency said the security situation in Iraq has drastically deteriorated. The situation further deteriorated when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and hundreds of militants from the Islamic State (IS). The militants took control of the country's northern city of Mosul and later seized swathes of territories after Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces.

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TagsIraq War, Iraq Violence