Iraq war deaths drop in 2010

BAGHDAD: A group monitoring Iraqi civilian deaths said in its annual report that the number has dropped slightly since 2009 but warned of a lingering, low-level conflict in the years ahead.

The organization called Iraq Body Count said in its year-end report released Thursday that 3,976 civilians have been killed this year as of Dec. 25, compared with 4,680 in 2009.

While there was a drop from 2009 to 2010, the organization said the rate of decline was smaller than in previous years, indicating that future security improvements would be much harder to come by.

"The 2010 data suggest a persistent low-level conflict in Iraq that will continue to kill civilians at a similar rate for years to come," the report said.

American military officials said in the early years of the war that they did not count Iraqi civilian deaths. But last summer, the U.S. military quietly posted a tally on one of its websites putting the death toll between January 2004 and August 2008 of Iraqi civilians and security forces at almost 77,000.

The tally fell short of the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry's estimated 85,694 civilian and security deaths between January 2004 and Oct. 31, 2008.

Iraq Body Count puts the number of dead between 99,285 and 108,398.

The organization uses media reports and other sources to compile its information, which is updated daily on its website.

The capital of Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, remained the most dangerous cities in the country, according to the organization's information.