5,736 Iraqis killed in 2005 violence: official data

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Nearly 6,000 Iraqi civilians, police
and troops were killed in violence last year, data released by
the Interior Ministry on Tuesday showed.

The figures were lower than those compiled by independent
bodies basing their calculations on media reports.

Of the 5,736 dead, 4,020 were civilians, 1,241 police
officers, and 475 were Iraqi soldiers, the date showed. No
comparable figures for previous years was available.

In addition, 1,734 people described as terrorists were
killed, the ministry said.

The data compiled by the Interior, Defense and Health
ministries found that 8,424 people were wounded, including
6,086 civilians.

The highest death toll among civilians came in September,
when 557 people were killed, the official data showed.

The figures did not include more than 1,000 people killed
at a religious festival in Baghdad in August when panic over
rumours of a suicide bomber provoked a stamped on a bridge.

A toll calculated by the independent Iraq Body Count Web
site, based on media reports, estimates that between 27,707 and
31,232 civilians alone have been killed since the U.S. invasion
of Iraq in March 2003. Many deaths also go unreported.

Up to March last year, nearly 25,000 civilians had been
killed Iraq Body Count estimated.

Another Web site, icasualties.org, which compiles media
reports, estimates that nearly 5,700 civilians were killed in
Iraq last year, and more than 2,500 police and Iraqi troops. In
2005, 845 U.S. soldiers were killed.

Last month, U.S. President George W. Bush said some 30,000
Iraqis may have been killed in the conflict, the first official
U.S. mention of a figure for Iraqi casualties.