Iraq Withholding Civilian Casualty Numbers From U.N.

The U.S. military in Iraq goes out of its way to assert that they keep no tally of Iraqis killed during the war.

That is supposedly the responsibility of the Iraqi Health Ministry.

On Friday, a spokesman for the U.N. human rights office in Baghdad said the organization would not report Iraqi civilian casualty figures in its next report, to be released next week. For months, the totals have been a key gauge of violence in Iraq and the government's attempts to bring the rule of law.

"The reason behind that is we have not been given the numbers," said Said Arikat, a spokesman for the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq. "The minister of health would not release it. They did not give us a reason. I don't know why." Arikat added that his office made a complaint to the government.

The Shiite-controlled Iraqi Health Ministry has been long involved in impeding accurate reporting of civilian killings, see Shiites Suppress Body Count After Mosque Bombing.