BAGHDAD, Iraq - Baghdad recorded more than 1,500 violent deaths in August, according to final figures released by the Health Ministry this week - nearly three times the preliminary figure the same ministry had released last week. The figure is a sharp contradiction of U.S. and Iraqi claims that a security crackdown led to a steep drop in deaths in the capital.
Instead, the number of deaths in the capital in August was roughly the same as during July, before the U.S.-led security crackdown began, the Health Ministry officials said.
They could provide no explanation for the discrepancy, but it could have resulted in part from a late August surge in deaths. More than 250 people were killed in Baghdad in the final week of August.
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