At 6.30am on December 1 2006, a unit of the US 18th Engineers made a gruesome discovery in the outskirts of Baghdad.
December 1 2006
A LN [Local National] was killed by blunt force trauma to the head. The body is dismembered, ribs missing internal organs and part of his face … there is evidence of torture and the LN was bound at the wrist.
This was not an isolated incident – even for that day. Just three hours earlier, another unit had discovered a decapitated body only metres away.
These tragic events marked the beginning of the bloodiest month of the Iraq War.
Civilian casualty - Zoriah/Flickr
Bloody civil war
As the civil war took hold, more than 2,500 files detailed horrific levels of torture and 5,183 deaths in that month. Two thirds of those who died, a staggering 3,784, were civilians. This is an average of 103 innocent men, women and children every day.
These newly revealed figures far exceed previous accounts from the United Nations and Iraq Body Count, which both put the figure for civilian fatalities in this month below 3,000.
An average of 103 civilians, including one child, were killed every day in Iraq in December 2006
By far the most dangerous place to live in December 2006 was Baghdad: 1,922 people were murdered there in December 2006 and all but 50 were classified as civilians. Every day, troops came across bodies left in the road or dumped in the river, many with signs of brutal torture. In some cases sites of mass execution were discovered.
Related article: The Iraq war logs
Northern Iraq, home to long-term hotspots Mosul and Kirkuk, was another area devastated by violence, with 473 civilian deaths. Civilians also died in the thousands of explosions caused by IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices). In December 2006 alone, 1,242 people died as a result of “Person-” and “Vehicle-borne” IEDs. Of those, 911 were civilians.
In one case, a student from a northern university was found beheaded. In another, seven corpses appear in the same log, including two women shot in the head.
Sectarian divisions
The country had been heading towards a civil war between the Sunni and Shia communities from the beginning of 2006. The February bombing by Sunni insurgents of the Golden Mosque in Samarra – one of Shia Islam’s holiest shrines – signalled the beginning of extreme inter-religious violence in Iraq.
“I like to tell people that when the final history is written of Iraq, [the violence] will look like just a comma.”
George W Bush, former US President
Violence spread across the country from June 2006, when the war logs report more than 2,000 civilian deaths for the first time.
Interactive: 109,000 fatalities – how they died
By September 2006, murder, torture and terror reigned on the streets of Iraq. In Washington, George Bush announced, “I like to tell people that when the final history is written of Iraq, [the violence] will look like just a comma.”
But the violence only got worse. In the month this statement was made, the logs reveal 2,850 civilian deaths.
The UN estimated that 1.7 million Iraqis were internally displaced as civilians fled hotspots such as as the capital. Mixed ethnic neighbourhoods that had once lived peacefully were split, or in some cases one side, Sunni or Shia, was cleared entirely.
So dangerous did it become that even the authorities sometimes refused to get involved. One report describes how a man killed by unknown assailants had been left dumped outside his house for three days. “Iraqi police notified,” says the report, “but would not come to that neighbourhood.”
Children in the crossfire
Perhaps the most shocking element in the files covering this period are the many references to children. There are 28 logs in December alone that detail children murdered and wounded. In total, 31 children – one a day – were killed. A further 23 were wounded.
Fallujah Insurgents - CatherineCRoberts/Flickr
In four cases across the month, the murders of two-year-old children were cited. In another, brothers aged three and four were reported shot dead.
In one of the most disturbing incidents logged on December 5 2006, rumours of a terrorist group committing a spate of child killings and kidnappings were detailed.
Nearly three weeks later, on December 23 2006, 14 members of the same family, including eight children, were killed by “Anti-Iraqi Forces”. The eldest member was kidnapped.
Related article: Hundreds of civilians gunned down at checkpoints
On many occasions, civilians were murdered in their own homes. In Diyala province, a home was attacked on December 28 2006 by insurgents as a punishment for a male member of the household working at a nearby coalition base. Two girls were killed and two boys wounded.
The bloody month ends with the execution of Saddam Hussein at 6am on December 30 2006 – an event not mentioned in the logs.
It is the one death that everyone will remember. It should have symbolised the end to violence and torture in Iraq. But five hours later, a woman missing “body parts” was discovered by a patrol and 217 other people were reported killed, or found dead, before the day was out.
January 19th, 2011at 8:39 pm(#)
It is only obvious that both the US forces and Iraqi forces are barbaric. What was/is done by both parties is simply inhuman. The extent to which they, as well as their leaders, believe their actions are beneficial is simply outrageous. It is unfortunate to see that neither have been “awakened” by their wrongs. They are models of what a society/country should not be. They have only proven to be disappointments.