BAGHDAD, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Violence across Iraq killed 68 civilians in June, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said Sunday.
A UNAMI statement added that 118 civilians were wounded in the terror attacks and armed conflicts in Iraq in the past month.
It said the number of casualties did not include Iraqi troops and security members killed and wounded, as the Iraqi military declined to give such information.
Previous figures of security members' casualties released by the UNAMI were dismissed by the Iraqi military as "inaccurate."
June's figures showed that Iraq's eastern province of Diyala was the worst affected with 52 civilian casualties, as 16 people were killed and 36 others wounded.
The second was the ethnically mixed province of Kirkuk, with 46 civilian casualties, as 10 people were killed and 36 wounded, according to the statement.
The Iraqi capital Baghdad followed with 37 civilian casualties, as the figures showed that 19 people were killed and 18 others wounded, it said.
On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from the extremists of the Islamic State (IS) militant group after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the extremist group.
However, small groups of IS militants have since regrouped in rugged areas, carrying out attacks against security forces and civilians from time to time.
Many blame the chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups in Iraq on the United States, which invaded the country in March 2003, under the pretext of seeking to destroy weapons of mass destruction in the country. But no such weapons were found.
