At least 47 are dead following what appears to have been an Iraqi military assault on Camp Ashraf, a refugee settlement inhabited by exiled members of the People’s Mujahdeen Organization of Iran (PMOI), or Mujahedeen Khalq. According to official reports, residents attempted to storm an army post at the entrance to the camp, prompting troops to open fire. PMOI said the post was stormed after the army fired mortar rounds on the camp. PMOI also accused Iraqi forces of executing at least five camp residents—after they had been subdued and hand-cuffed. (NYT, NBC, PMOI, Sept. 1)
A total of 804 Iraqis were killed in August by the UN’s count—overwhelmingly civilians, mostly targeted in shootings and bombings claimed by Iraq’s al-Qaeda franchise. July saw 1,057 dead—the highly monthly toll since 2008. When the violence in Iraq was at its height in 2006-7, the number of people killed per month sometimes exceeded 3,000. Nearly 5,000 civilians have been killed and 12,000 wounded since the beginning of 2013, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI). (NBC, Sept. 1)
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