2014 Was Deadly Year in Both Iraq, Syria
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Hope Milam/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The latest casualty figures for both Iraq and Syria revealed large numbers of citizens killed in 2014 — including the deadliest year in Iraq since 2008.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq released its December casualty figures on Thursday, showing 1,101 Iraqis killed and 1,868 injured in terror and violent incidents in December. That figure brought the yearly total to 12,282 deaths and 23,126 injured.
“Yet again, the Iraqi ordinary citizen continues to suffer from violence and terrorism,” Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraqi Nickolay Mladenov said. “2014 has seen the highest number of casualties since the violence in 2006-2007.”
He added that the situation is “a very sad state of affairs.”
Mladenov called on political leaders to “come together and find peaceful solutions to the problems that face the country.”
Also on Thursday, the United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights released data that showed 76,000 people were killed in Syria in 2014 — the deadliest year of the four-year conflict. Of the dead, 17,790 were civilians and 3,501 were children.
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