Free the Captives: Witness Against Illegal Detention and Torture

There was no news on Saturday February 4 of the fate of Tom Fox and the other three CPT peaceworkers held captive in Iaq. Other reports from Iraq include rumors of civil war and more military and civilian deaths:

from the Associated Press: Sunni Chiefs Raise Warnings of Civil War

Sunni politicians warned of civil war Saturday after the bullet-riddled bodies of 14 Sunni Arab men were found in Baghdad - apparently the latest victims of sectarian death squads.

One person was killed and 12 injured when a mortar shell exploded near a Shiite mosque north of the capital.

Sunni leaders claimed the 14 men were seized last week by Shiite-led security forces. There was no confirmation from the Shiite-led Interior Ministry that government troops were responsible.

A top ministry official, Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal, said the bodies were shot multiple times and dumped in the back of a truck in northern Baghdad late Friday. He denounced the killings as a "criminal" act and said "we have nothing so far" to indicate government forces were to blame.

Leaders of several major Sunni Arab political organizations insisted the Interior Ministry was responsible for the killings.

The 14 bodies were taken to a morgue to be collected by their families, the Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni clerical group, said in a statement. The bodies of a father and son were taken to the headquarters of the National Dialogue Council, another Sunni political group, and displayed to reporters.

Shiites, an estimated 60 percent of Iraq's 27 million people, also have been the victims of sectarian killings and often have been targeted in suicide bombings.

Long oppressed under Saddam Hussein, Shiites insist they must maintain control of the security forces to defend themselves and to prevent the return of Saddam-style dictatorship.

U.S. and United Nations diplomats have also called for control of the key security ministries to taken out of the hands of sectarian groups. The issue is expected to hinder quick agreement on a new government when talks among Iraq's parties begin in earnest this month.

A Look at U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq

As of Saturday, Feb. 4, 2006, at least 2,249 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes six military civilians. At least 1,759 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

The AP count is one higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EST.

The British military has reported 100 deaths; Italy, 27; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 17; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Slovakia, three; Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, one death each.

Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 2,110 U.S. military members have died, according to AP's count. That includes at least 1,645 deaths resulting from hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 16,606 U.S. service members have been wounded, according to a Defense Department tally Tuesday.

[NOTE: By contrast, Iraqi casualty figures are very imprescise. The total number of civilians killed durng the occupation has plausibly been estiamnted as in excess of 100,000.]