Alwaght- Terrorism and violence has claimed lives of more than 660 Iraqi people and has injured about 1,500 in June 2016, UN reported.
According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), a total of 662 Iraqis were killed and 1,457 others were injured last month.
The UN mission said that the number of the civilians killed stood at 382, and that there were 1,145 civilians among those injured. Violence also claimed the lives of 280 members of the Iraqi security forces, and 312 forces sustained injuries.
A large portion of the fatalities was recorded in the capital, Baghdad, where 236 civilians were killed and 742 others wounded.
The fact that violence and casualties continued during the holy month of Ramadan, Muslim's fasting month, indicated that terrorist fighting in Iraq and Syria have nothing to do with Islam as Ramadan is month of peace and compassion in Islam.
Jan Kubis, the special representative of the UN secretary-general for Iraq said "We had hoped for a period of calm during holy Ramadan, a month of peace and compassion, but unfortunately the violence continued to take its toll on civilians,” he said.
"The terrorists did not spare an occasion to strike at markets, mosques and areas where people gathered in order to exact maximum casualties among civilians, despite the religious occasion and in total disregard of the values of Islam,” he said.
The UN report came on the same day that the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) announced that 3.6 million children in Iraq, meaning one in five, are at the serious risk of death, injury, sexual violence, abduction and recruitment by Takfiri militant groups.
The UN body, in a statement titled “A Heavy Price for Children,” said that the number of children facing such hazards has soared by 1.3 million in 18 months, describing Iraq as “one of the most dangerous places in the world for children.”
The UNICEF report further said that a total of 1,496 children have been kidnapped in Iraq over the past two-and-a-half years, when foreign-sponsored militancy gripped the country, adding that the number translates to 50 children abducted on a monthly basis.
The UN agency called for an urgent action to protect children’s rights in Iraq, particularly an immediate cessation of the killing, maiming, and abduction of minors by Takfiri groups.
The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by gruesome violence ever since ISIS terrorists mounted an offensive in the country in June 2014.
Iraqi government forces, backed by fighters from allied Popular Mobilization Forces, have been fighting the Terrorist.They have recently liberated ISIS-held city of Fallujah and are launching a major operation to recapture the strategic city of Mosul from ISIS terrorists.
