ALEX CHADWICK, host:
On a day when violence killed more than 80 Iraqis, the U.N. says more than 34,000 Iraqi civilians were killed last year. NPR's Jamie Tarabay reports from Baghdad.
JAMIE TARABAY: A massive car bomb outside Mustansiriyah University in the capital's east killed at least 60 people, including students and their teachers. Roadside bombs placed next to one of the holiest Sunni shrines in Baghdad killed at least 15 people and wounded 70 others. The bomb destroyed the shrine's white marble exterior and blew out stained glass windows.
In central Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol. Then, as people arrive to help, a second detonated, killing four. In it's bimonthly report, the United Nations named sectarian violence an act by terrorist groups as the main source of violence in the country, and said Baghdad was the center of the sectarian battle. It said sectarian violence was fueled by revenge killings, a lack of accountability for past crimes, as well as a sense of growing impunity among militias and criminal gangs for their actions.
Just in November and December, the U.N. reports more than 6,300 civilians died violent deaths - the vast majority in Baghdad, most from gunshot wounds. During 2006, the U.N. says more than 34,000 civilians were violently killed, more than 36,000 wounded.
The Iraqi government has disputed earlier U.N. estimates as inaccurate and exaggerated. But a source inside the Ministry of Interior told NPR today that the U.N.'s estimate is correct and might even be too low.
Last February's attack on a Shiite shrine escalated sectarian killings, which continue to claim Iraqi lives everyday. The U.N. says that since that attack, nearly half a million Iraqis have been forced to move from their homes for safer parts of the country.
Jamie Tarabay, NPR News, Baghdad. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
