Iraqi government plays down the number of the victims

This report pub­lished on AL-Hayat news­pa­per today:

Iraqi offi­cials didn’t release the sta­tis­tics of the num­ber of vic­tims [from the last wave of explo­sions], but infor­ma­tion obtained by Al-Hayat news­pa­per revealed by an Iraqi offi­cial refused to reveal his name con­firms an offi­cial let­ter addressed by Prime Min­is­ter Nuri al-Maliki to the Min­istries of Inte­rior, Defense, Health and the Baghdad’s mil­i­tary Com­mand pre­vents them from giv­ing the pre­cise fig­ures of the vic­tims of the bomb­ings and armed actions.

The source also revealed that the let­ter signed by Maliki, as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and not as a prime min­is­ter. Accord­ing to unof­fi­cial sources, the num­ber of vic­tims of the blasts, which occurred near the Min­istry of Finance, For­eign Affairs reached more than 700 killed and injured.