ABC Reports From Iraq: "A Much-Publicized Drop-Off In Violence...Apparently Didn't Exist"...

It turns out the official toll of violent deaths in August was just revised upwards to 1535 from 550, tripling the total.

ABC News/From The Frontlines September 6, 2006 at 04:01 PM
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We took an interesting phone call today from an official at the Baghdad morgue. We get these calls every day - a daily tally of the violence. But this one was particularly sobering.

It turns out the official toll of violent deaths in August was just revised upwards to 1535 from 550, tripling the total. Now, we're depressingly used to hearing about deaths here, so much so that the numbers can be numbing. But this means that a much-publicized drop-off in violence in August - heralded by both the Iraqi government and the US military as a sign that a new security effort in Baghdad was working -- apparently didn't exist.

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