Civilians Bearing Brunt of Iraq Violence

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgency-related violence last year killed more than twice as many Iraqi civilians — 4,024 people — as Iraqi soldiers and police, according to government figures obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

And the civilian death count in the first two months of this year already stands at more than one-quarter of last year's total — due in part to sectarian violence triggered by the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine and car bombings in Shiite neighborhoods around Baghdad.

The large number of civilian deaths — many in Baghdad, where 25 percent of the population lives — has created a climate of fear where parents are afraid to send their children to school, women spend their days huddled inside their homes, and husbands send wives and children abroad.

Figures compiled by the Health Ministry put the civilian death toll for 2005 at 4,024. The ministry's civilian death count for the first two months of this year is 1,093.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iraq_deaths