Decimate:

Originally meant the killing of one in 10, as the Roman legions once did to punish troops for avoiding going into battle. It should be used only to mean killing, not other destruction, and even with killings, it ideally should be reserved for cases where the idea of one in 10 isn't outlandishly off the mark.
www.careerjournaleurope.com/columnists/styleandsubstance/glossary.html

kill one in every ten, as of mutineers in Roman armies
eliminate: kill in large numbers; "the plague wiped out an entire population"
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Decimation was a form of extreme military discipline imposed by officers in the Roman Army. Literally meaning "removal of a tenth," this punishment was assigned to mutinous or cowardly soldiers. Those selected for punishment were divided into groups of ten; each group cast lots, and the soldier on whom the lot fell was executed by his nine comrades, often by stoning or clubbing. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimate


But in popular usage these days it has taken on the meaning to shatter into smithereens, or perhaps tenths. :D

Meanwhile, if you follow the North African coast of the Med east to Tunisia, and onward along the shorelines of Libya and Egypt and Jordan, turn right at the border of Syria and proceed easterly about 400 miles roughly, you will find your self smack dab in Iraq, just south of eastern Turkey and west of Iran.

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