The body of satire has been dug up, shot, and buried again.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military did not count people killed by bombs, mortars, rockets or other mass attacks - including suicide bombings - when it reported a dramatic drop in killings in the Baghdad area last month, the U.S. command said yesterday.

The decision to include only victims of drive-by shootings and those killed by torture and execution, usually at the hands of death squads, allowed U.S. officials to argue that a security crackdown that began in the capital Aug. 7 had more than halved the city's murder rate.

But the types of slayings, including suicide bombings, that the United States excluded from the category of "murder" were not made explicit at the time. That led to confusion after Iraqi Health Ministry figures showed that 1,536 people died violently in and around Baghdad in August, nearly the same number as in July.

How bad are things when excluding all the deaths except those from death squads roaming the streets with impunity is your best PR ploy?