And: Crime wave in Iraqi capital unprecedented
Crime wave in Iraqi capital unprecedented
By NIKO PRICE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Baghdad is at the height of a summer that is long, hot - and violent. As police return to the war-shattered streets to try to restore order, they are finding themselves in the middle of an unprecedented crime wave.
While the state-sponsored violence of Saddam Hussein's regime is gone, so is the iron fist of the police state it used to keep Iraqis in check. Police have no crime statistics yet, but Baghdad's morgue handled 47 times as many gunshot deaths in July as in the same month a year ago.