Violence Still Rising: 2,034 Killed in Iraq in April

A Year Into Escalation, No Sign of Slowdown

It was April of last year when Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered a violent crackdown on protesters, sparking retaliation and a surging death toll. A year later, things are still getting worse.

Antiwar.com’s figures show 2,034 people killed nationwide in April, an increase from the 1,886 killed in March. 2,337 others were wounded. The Antiwar.com toll was in line with Iraq’s own figures on civilians and security forces, which put the toll at 1,009 (Antiwar.com figures were 1,041 for this subset).

The UN figures, as usual, refused to count the Anbar Province, which is where the vast majority of the fighting was done. Their official “ex-Anbar” figure was 750 killed.

Every month so far in 2014 has seen significant increases in the death toll over the previous month. With al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) still in control of most of the Anbar Province, the trend seems unlikely to change.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.