Iraq violence ‘on the rise’

The semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan tothe north is still largely safer for oil companies to operate in than the centralregion, but a series of explosions in the capital Erbil late last month meansthe area is still “not completely without risk”, security analyst AKE Groupsaid.

There were 2486 non-militant fatalities inIraq between July and the end of September, AKE’s data has shown.