| Iraqi deaths hit new high, many emigrate
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi deaths hit a new high in October and 100,000 people are fleeing abroad every month to escape worsening violence that is segregating the country on sectarian lines, a U.N. report said on Wednesday.
Painting a grim picture of a population caught in the cross-fire between insurgents, militias, criminal gangs and security forces, the bimonthly report put civilian deaths in October at 3,709 -- 120 a day and up from 3,345 in September.
The White House announced that U.S. President George W. Bush would meet Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Jordan next week to discuss transferring greater security responsibility to U.S.- trained Iraqi forces, a key demand of the Iraqi government.
British forces could hand over the key southern oil city of Basra, which generates almost all of Iraq's revenues, and the rest of Basra province to Iraqi forces by next spring, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said in London.
Though plagued by factional fighting, mainly Shi'ite Basra has largely escaped the sectarian violence ravaging much of Iraq. British forces have already handed over responsibility for two other provinces.
The U.N. report said nearly 420,000 Iraqis had fled their homes since the February bombing of a Shi'ite shrine triggered a surge in sectarian attacks.
As well as those displaced internally, nearly 100,000 people were fleeing to Syria and Jordan each month -- proportionally equivalent to 1 million Americans emigrating each month.
POLICE LOYALTY QUESTIONED
The meeting between Bush and Maliki in the Jordanian capital Amman, a much safer venue than Baghdad, will follow a weekend visit to Iran by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and this week's landmark visit to Iraq by Syria's foreign minister.
They will be the first lengthy talks between Bush and Maliki since Bush pledged a new approach on Iraq after his Democratic opponents took control of Congress.
They have already agreed to draw up plans to accelerate the training of Iraqi forces and transfer of responsibility. Maliki says Iraqis could take charge in six months, half the U.S. estimate.
A joint statement on the November 29-30 summit said: "We will focus our discussions on current developments in Iraq, progress made to date in the deliberations of a high-level joint committee on transferring security responsibility and the role of the region in supporting Iraq."
But the U.N. report raised questions about the sectarian loyalties and effectiveness of Iraq's police force and army.
"There are increasing reports of militias and death squads operating from within the police ranks or in collusion with them," it said. "Its forces are increasingly accused of ... kidnapping, torture, murder, bribery ... extortion and theft."
The report said Baghdad was worst hit, accounting for nearly 5,000 of the 7,054 deaths in September and October, with most bodies bearing signs of torture and gunshot wounds.
Sectarian attacks were the main source of violence, fuelled by insurgent attacks and militias as well as criminal groups.
The report said militias in Baghdad were reported to be forcibly evicting people from their homes. One such is Waleed Jihad, who lives in a tent in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya, 330 km (200 miles) north of the Baghdad home he had to leave.
"I'm living in a tent because we are practicing democracy in a jungle, where the mighty kill the weak," said Jihad, 37, a Sunni Arab from the Shi'ite stronghold of Kadhimiya.
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