Violence claimed 354 Iraqi civilian lives in May: United Nations

Iraqis gather at the site of a car bomb explosion near Baghdad's al-Shuhada Bridge on May 30, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Latest figures released by the UN show that acts of terrorism and violence killed more than 350 civilians in May, as government forces, backed by volunteer fighters, are engaged in joint operations to expel Daesh terrorists out of their last urban stronghold in the country.

According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), a total of 354 Iraqi civilians lost their lives last month, and 470 others were injured.

The UN mission, however, did not mention the number of Iraqi police forces, who were killed or sustained injuries in the violence.

A large number of the fatalities were recorded in the troubled northern province of Nineveh, where 160 civilians were killed and 52 others wounded.

The capital province of Baghdad saw 86 people killed and another 226 injured. 

Elsewhere, a total of 13 people died and 41 others were wounded in Iraq’s southern oil-rich province of Basra.

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Iraq Jan Kubis decried terrorists’ continued targeting of civilians before and in the early days of the Islamic fasting holy month of Ramadan. 

“The terrorist Daesh is in its death throes in Mosul, but it has continued to stretch its wicked arm there and in other areas to relieve the military pressure on it, deliberately aiming to kill and maim the maximum number of civilians,” he said.

“Daesh has attacked with explosives a busy ice cream shop in Baghdad where families gathered at night after Iftar. The terrorists also hit on a street outside a government pension office in the capital, and struck as far as the city of Basra in the south,” he elaborated.

On May 30, two separate bomb explosions ripped through Baghdad, leaving at least 27 people dead and 100 others injured.

Iraqis gather at the site of a car bomb explosion near Baghdad's al-Shuhada Bridge on May 30, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The first blast took place outside a popular ice cream shop in the mainly Shia-populated shopping area of Karrada. Sixteen people were killed in the attack. Daesh claimed responsibility for the bombing.

The second bombing struck near Iraq’s retirement agency. It left 11 people, including two policemen, dead.

Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units, commonly known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi, have made sweeping gains against the Takfiri elements since launching the Mosul operation on October 17, 2016.

The Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19.