733 people killed in Iraq's violence in January

A total of 733 Iraqis were killed in violent attacks in Iraq in January, according to a statement issued Saturday by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI). The statement said that 618 civilians and 115 members of the security forces were killed and 1,229 were wounded in terrorist and violent acts in January across Iraq. The UNAMI statement excluded the casualties in Anbar province where fierce clashes flared up after Iraqi police dismantled an anti-government protest site outside Ramadi in late December last year. "I am deeply worried about the humanitarian situation of thousands of displaced families and particularly of those stranded in Fallujah. They lacked water, fuel, food, medicine and other basic commodities," UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov said in the statement. Last week, the UN refugee agency said that more than 65,000 people had fled the conflict in the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi in Iraq's central Anbar province over the past week. More than 140, 000 people have fled since the fighting began at the end of 2013. Iraq's Sunnis have been carrying out a year-long protest, accusing the Shiite-led government of marginalizing them and its Shiite-dominated security forces of indiscriminately arresting, torturing and killing their sons.