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Global

Number of deaths in Iraq falls sharply in July, U.N. says


    (Reuters) - Violence killed 1,737 people, mostly civilians, in Iraq in July, when Sunni insurgents seized large swathes of land in the north, United Nations figures showed.

    That was a sharp drop from June, when about 2,400 Iraqis were killed.

    The Islamic State swept through northern Iraq almost unopposed by the army and threatened to march on Baghdad, but its offensive stalled just north of capital.

    The campaign has fuelled religious tensions and threatened Iraq's survival as a unified state. It rivals the worst of the last decade's sectarian fighting and poses the biggest danger to the OPEC member's stability since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

    (Created by Michael Georgy)