"figures released on Monday showed that more civilians died...in 2007 (16,232) than in 2006 (12,360)

[ProSense]

Levels of violence are sharply down in most parts of Iraq, although the top U.S. military commander, General David Petraeus, warned at the weekend that the military gains were fragile and reversible without political reconciliation between the warring sects to cement them.

Despite the dramatic drop in violence in December, the figures released on Monday showed that more civilians died overall in 2007 (16,232) than in 2006 (12,360).

Some 1,300 policemen and 432 soldiers were also killed this year, along with 4,544 militants, according to the data. In 2006, 602 soldiers were killed and 1,231 police.

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But, in a reminder that while security has improved in Iraq, it is still plagued by violence, an Iraqi army source said four Iraqi soldiers and 16 al Qaeda militants had been killed in clashes on Monday in the village of Hashimiya west of Baquba, a volatile city north of Baghdad.

A suicide car bomb also killed five children and six neighborhood patrol volunteers on the northern outskirts of Baghdad on Monday, an Interior Ministry source said.

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