Iraqi Death Toll Continues to Rise with New Weekend Violence

The upward spiraling death toll in Iraq continued to climb over the weekend with more than 60 deaths nation-wide. In the Baghdad area alone, at least 10 explosions were reported in Shiite neighborhoods, killing 41 people. 20 others died throughout the rest of the country in shootings and blasts bringing the October death toll to about 650 and the yearly tally to more than 5,300. The level of violence in 2013 is the worst since 2008 and threatens to challenge the record carnage caused by sectarian fighting between 2006 and 2007. A Western report pegs the death toll in Iraq since the US invasion in 2003 at more than 500,000.