Michael Ware

Journalist

LDT: "...it seems nothing is able to control this violence."


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Length: 2:12


KITTY PILGRIM: Well, insurgents have killed another one of our troops in Iraq. A soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in northern Iraq.

2,869 of our troops have been killed in Iraq since the war began, 21,778 have been wounded. And of those, 9,977 have been so seriously wounded they cannot return to duty.

Over 100 Iraqis were killed in violence there today, and the new report says October was a deadly month for Iraqis. More than 3,700 civilians were killed.

Michael Ware reports now from Baghdad.

Now, Michael, what's being done to try to bring the violence under control?

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kitty, despite all the measures being taken, it seems nothing is able to control this violence. The United Nations has found that in October more Iraqi men, women and children died than in any month since the U.S. invasion in 2003. That puts the total of civilian deaths here in Iraq, according to the U.N., at more than 13,500 in just four months.

Now, a lot of these deaths are coming as a result of the sectarian violence. We also see the American mission trying to shore up the new minister of interior and, of course, the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.

But we also see them putting the Iraqi police through rescreening and retraining as a result of their infiltration by militias and death squads while there has been a dip in violence following the insurgent's holy month of Ramadan offensive. The Battle for Baghdad, Operation Together Forward, continues as coalition forces try to reclaim the capital from Shia militias, death squads and insurgents.

In the meantime, 2,200 more Marines are being sent to western Anbar Province, where they're battling an al Qaeda-led insurgency. Nonetheless, more than 50 bodies were found on the streets of Baghdad this morning, and over 20 of them were blindfolded -- Kitty.

PILGRIM: Michael Ware reporting from Baghdad tonight.