Temperatures in Baghdad and points north are now soaring, and the Civilian Death Toll is rising.
The authorities have finally admitted to what many people - undertakers, families, even the police - have been saying all along : that their policies have caused a Humanitarian Catastrophe of unprecedented size.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people have died in the last few days in what is now officially described as an "epidemic", due to lack of proper facilities, facilities that should have been provided long ago. The civilian death rate in the Capital alone is comparable to the rate for the whole of Iraq during the period of "Major Combat Operations".
While continuing to deny responsibility, the authorities have finally taken emergency measures. They have admitted to covering up the scale of the disaster, even falsifying causes of death, and now grudgingly confirm that the sheer magnitude of the catastrophe "may surprise people".
From The Australian :
The French Government admitted today that a large number of people had died in the heatwave, but rejected claims that it was partly responsible.
"The (death) figures are high, perhaps even very high.... We can now talk about what happened as a true epidemic, with everything that means in terms of the number of victims," Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei told France Inter radio.
He warned that the final total "may surprise people".
The acknowledgement followed comments from doctors, police and undertakers over the past days that the death toll numbered in the hundreds.
The Government, which has not given an official tally, has been accused of being poorly prepared to handle the crisis, slow to react once its seriousness became clear, and apt to qualify many of the heatwave deaths as deaths from natural causes.
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin yesterday ordered regional authorities in and around Paris to activate an emergency plan normally reserved for epidemics, disasters or terrorist attacks.
But you knew this was in France, not Iraq, didn't you.
10:33:53 AM 
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