7,420 Iraqis killed in 2005

More than 7,000 Iraqis, including 4,021 civilians, were killed in violence in 2005, the first year that Iraqi officials have kept such records, an Interior Ministry official said today.

The year 2005 saw 2,880 terrorist attacks target Iraqi security forces and civilians, Maj Abdul Aziz al-Mousawi said.

Some 1,225 policemen and 475 soldiers were killed, along with 1,709 insurgents, he said.

It was impossible to confirm the accuracy of the numbers because many slayings in Iraq go unreported and there are no other official figures to compare them with. The United States military does not track civilian deaths.

But the numbers help give some clarity to just how high the death toll has been in a nation where ordinary civilians are frequently targeted by insurgents and have been caught up in attacks by US troops.

Al-Mousawi oversees the Interior Ministry database that included the figures. The numbers are slightly less than those published by the group Iraq Coalition Casualties, which compiles media reports.

It said 5,712 Iraqi civilians and 2,593 Iraqi troops had been killed in 2005.

In mid-December, US President George Bush estimated that 30,000 Iraqis had been killed since the start of the war in March 2003.

The White House later said he was referring to previously reported estimates.

As of yesterday, at least 2,183 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war, according to an Associated Press count.

That includes at least 1,712 killed in hostile action.

In 2005, 845 American soldiers were killed, according to an Associated Press tally. That figure does not include military civilian deaths, and the military may still announce more deaths from 2005 in coming days.

The website Iraq Body Count claims that between 27,707 and 31,232 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the war began.