The death toll across Iraq in November dropped to its lowest level since the breakout of sectarian strife in February last year, a government report showed on Saturday.
The report compiled by the ministries of health, interior and defense said that a total of 606 Iraqis, including 537 civilians, were killed in the past month.
The casualties of November is the lowest since the sectarian bloodshed came to an escalation following the blast at a holy Shiite mosque in February 2006.
Separately, the toll for the U.S. troops also recorded a new low at 37 in November since March 2006 when 31 American servicemen were killed, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, a website that follows coalition force casualties. In October, 38 U.S. troops died in Iraq.
Multifactors attributed to the security pickup in the past months, including a surge of U.S. troops, the ceasefire of a major Shiite militia force and the uprising against al-Qaida by tribal and neighborhood armed groups.
Despite the improvement, concerns remain strong about how long the rosy circumstances would last due to a lack of tangible reconciliation in the heavily divided nation.
Iraq's largest Sunni political bloc, the Accord Front, announced Saturday a walkout from the parliament in protest of the "house arrest" of its leader Adnan al-Dulaimi and the arrest of dozens of his body guards and aides, including his son.
However, the Iraqi security force denied al-Dulaimi was under a "house arrest," arguing that he was under protect after the discovery of two booby-trapped cars in his office compound on Thursday.
The bloc withdrew its ministers in August from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's united government, saying its demands had been ignored by the Shiites.
As the reconciliation process bogged down in Iraq, the country is still witnessing bloody attacks staged by terrorists and extremists, although there was an ebb to some extent.
An overnight assault allegedly by al-Qaida members killed at least 11 people at a village in the volatile Diyala province.
Since mid-November, a wave of bomb attacks have rocked Baghdad, breaking the recent lull. Among them, the explosion on Nov. 23 killed at least 13 and injured nearly 60 in a pet market in Baghdad, causing the largest loss for about two months.
Source: Xinhua
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