An Iraqi inspects a house damaged in a roadside bomb explosion in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2007. A bomb hidden in a pile of garbage detonated in eastern Baghdad, killing three persons and injuring seven more, police said. [AP]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The number of civilians killed in the violence in Iraq rose sharply over the last three months, accounting for 5,000, or about 40 percent, of the more than 12,000 who died in 2006, the Iraqi government says.

In the third full year since the US-led invasion, only about half as many Iraqi soldiers died in 2006 as American troops, the government reported Tuesday.

But the number of Iraqi security forces killed jumped to 1,539 - nearly double the American death count of 823 for the year - when the deaths of police, who conduct paramilitary operations, are added to the number of slain Iraqi soldiers.

The civilian toll of 12,357 coupled with the security force deaths bring the overall figure reported by the ministries of Health, Defense and Interior to 13,896 - 162 more than the tally kept by The Associated Press.

The AP count, assembled from its daily news reports, was always believed to be substantially lower than the actual number of deaths because the news cooperative does not have daily access to official accounting by the Iraqi ministries. Many deaths were thought to have gone unreported by AP.

Counts kept by other groups, including the United Nations, list far higher death tolls, which are disputed by the Iraqi government.

While the US government and military provide no death totals for Iraqis, the U.N. Assistance Ministry for Iraq, UNAMI, does keep a count based on reports it gathers from the Baghdad morgue, Ministry of Health, and Medico-Legal Institute.

The figures for November and December are not yet available from the U.N. But as of the end of October, the organization had reported 26,782 deaths in the first 10 months of 2006, nearly double what the Iraqi government and the AP reported for the entire year.

1

2