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• 12 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 261 • December 2006<br />
review Russia in global politics. The<br />
two countries intend to raise their<br />
tra<strong>de</strong> from its present level of<br />
about $300 million to $600 million,<br />
according to the Russian diplomat.<br />
Mr. Assad, whose country had<br />
been the principal Near Eastern<br />
ally of the ex-USSR, ma<strong>de</strong> his first<br />
visit to Russia in 2005, thus<br />
renewing bi-lateral cooperation.<br />
Syria continues to buy the bulk of<br />
its weaponry from Russia.<br />
According to the official daily<br />
paper Al-Baas, quoting the Syrian<br />
Ministry of the Interior, Syria has<br />
received more than 800,000 Iraqi<br />
refugees since the beginning of the<br />
conflict in their country. Of this<br />
total, 648,000 Iraqis reached Syria<br />
in the months immediately<br />
following the overthrow of the<br />
Saddam Hussein regime in 2003,<br />
according to a Ministry official<br />
quoted by the paper. This influx of<br />
refugees can be attributed to the<br />
Syrian laws that make it easy to<br />
obtain a visa for Arabs as well as<br />
Syria’s proximity to Iraq. Iraqi<br />
refugees can secure a one-year<br />
resi<strong>de</strong>nce permit, renewable<br />
annually if they have a regular<br />
source of income in Syria, own<br />
property or enrol their children in<br />
a Syrian school, according to the<br />
official cited by Al-Baas. The<br />
majority of the Iraqi refugees have<br />
settle in or around Damascus. Most<br />
of them come from the middle<br />
classes and are living on their<br />
savings.<br />
Furthermore, Syria and Iraq have<br />
re-opened embassies in their<br />
respective capitals. Damascus and<br />
Baghdad have thus put an end to a<br />
diplomatic breach of over 20 years.<br />
The Iraqi flag was thus hoisted<br />
over the Iraqi Embassy in<br />
Damascus during a ceremony<br />
atten<strong>de</strong>d by Syrian and Iraqi<br />
lea<strong>de</strong>rs. A similar ceremony took<br />
place in the Mansur quarter of<br />
Baghdad, outsi<strong>de</strong> the green zone,<br />
the authorities <strong>de</strong>clared on 11<br />
December. Iraq and Syrian had<br />
broken off diplomatic relations<br />
when Damascus si<strong>de</strong>d with Iran<br />
during the Iraq-Iran war, in the<br />
80s. The two governments agreed,<br />
the month before, to re-establish<br />
full diplomatic relations during a<br />
visit to Baghdad by the Syrian<br />
Foreign Minister Walid al-Mualem.<br />
half were killed in the last four<br />
months of the year victims of acts<br />
<strong>de</strong>scribed as terrorist by the Iraqi<br />
authorities. Of these, half were<br />
killed in the last four months of the<br />
year. The Ministry reports 1,930<br />
civilians killed in December – a<br />
figure three and a half as great as<br />
January’s (580), which was before<br />
the ti<strong>de</strong> of violence following the<br />
bomb attack against the Shiite<br />
mosque in Samarra, in February.<br />
The Ministry of the Interior<br />
recor<strong>de</strong>d the <strong>de</strong>aths, in December,<br />
of 125 Iraqi police and 25 soldiers –<br />
figures similar to those for<br />
November and October. The US<br />
Army, for its part, announced the<br />
<strong>de</strong>aths of 112 US soldiers in<br />
December – its heaviest casualty<br />
list in two years. On 31 December,<br />
the Pentagon announced the <strong>de</strong>ath<br />
of a Texan soldier in Baghdad,<br />
bringing the total of Americans<br />
killed in Iraq since the beginning of<br />
the war to at least 3,000, according<br />
to a body count ma<strong>de</strong> by<br />
Associated Press based on official<br />
communiqués. At least 820 US<br />
soldiers were killed in Iraq in<br />
2006, 111 of whom in December,<br />
the most mur<strong>de</strong>rous month that<br />
year.<br />
THE NUMBER OF IRAQI CIVILIAN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE<br />
REACHES AN UNPRECEDENTED LEVEL IN DECEMBER<br />
T<br />
he number of Iraqi<br />
civilian victims of<br />
violence reached a record<br />
level in December, after<br />
having consi<strong>de</strong>rably<br />
increased the month before, as<br />
shown by figures coming from the<br />
Iraqi Ministry of the Interior. The<br />
number of civilians killed in Iraq in<br />
November increased by 43% as<br />
compared with October, itself<br />
particularly bloody. According to<br />
figures from the Ministries of the<br />
Interior and Defence, 1,847<br />
civilians were killed in November<br />
throughout Iraq, as against 1,289 in<br />
October, marred by mur<strong>de</strong>rous<br />
attack on the occasion of Ramadan.<br />
Furthermore, the number of<br />
insurgents killed in November was<br />
more than twice as many as in<br />
October, reaching 423 as against<br />
194 the month before, according to<br />
the two Ministries.<br />
The statistics, that are consi<strong>de</strong>red<br />
to be indicative, rather than<br />
necessarily covering all the <strong>de</strong>aths<br />
from violence, show 12,320<br />
civilians killed in 2006, Of these,<br />
Further more, according to a<br />
Pentagon report published on 19<br />
December, Iraq experienced 959<br />
attacks a week between 12 August<br />
and 10 November – a record since<br />
Congress <strong>de</strong>man<strong>de</strong>d, in 2005, that<br />
the Pentagon set up this kind of<br />
report. “In the course of the last three<br />
months; the number of attacks has<br />
increased by 22%. Part of this increase<br />
is due to the seasonal peak in violence<br />
during the month of Ramadan”,<br />
stresses this report, to the US<br />
Congress, which covers the period<br />
from 12 August to 10 November.<br />
The Pentagon report points out<br />
that the coalition forces remain the<br />
principle target of these attacks