Baghdad deaths up but below pre-crackdown level-US

WASHINGTON, May 25 (Reuters) Killings of Iraqis in Baghdad have risen this month but are still well below the levels recorded before U.S. and Iraqi forces began a security crackdown, the top U.S.

general said.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the US military's joint chiefs of staff yesterday, said just over 1,400 civilian deaths were recorded in January and that number dropped to 800 in February, when the new operation began.

The figure declined further to just over 500 in March and remained around the same in April, Pace said at a Pentagon joint news conference with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

''This month it's a little bit higher, maybe about 20 or 30 higher than it was at this time last month,'' Pace said, but he did not give a current total.

Pace offered no explanation for the rise in May and said he could not break them down into sectarian killings and deaths due to other reasons.

''It's difficult to parse out some of the deaths from other deaths,'' he said.

However, US commanders last month cited a decline in sectarian killings as evidence of success in their Baghdad security plan, which involves higher troop levels and a shift from operating in large bases to smaller neighborhood posts.

Pace also said military officers and diplomats in Iraq were reviewing their plans to stabilize the country but their work did not amount to a new strategy.

''This is very much a refinement to the ongoing campaign plan,'' he said.

The Washington Post on Thursday reported there has been an increase this month in the number of unidentified corpses found in Baghdad, indicating sectarian killings were on the rise.

Citing morgue data provided by an Iraqi health official, the Post said 321 unidentified corpses -- many dumped and showing signs of torture and execution -- had been found across Baghdad this month.

That was the same as the figure for the whole month of January, the Post said.

REUTERS SZ PM0558