24,000 civilian Iraqi deaths in 2007

Violence in Iraq, including actions by US-led coalition and paramilitary forces, was responsible for some 24,000 civilian deaths in 2007, according to an independent group monitoring casualties in the war-ravaged country.

The Iraq Body Count (IBC) whose figures are tallied from media reports, morgues, hospitals, non-governmental groups and other sources, said in a report released Tuesday that there were between 22,586 and 24,159 violent civilian deaths in Iraq during the past year.

"Perhaps the most accurate description of the security situation for Iraqi civilians in the past year is that it was less bad than if the worst of the late 2006 levels had been sustained throughout 2007," the group said in a statement.

The IBC lamented security that "remains at an abysmally low level" in much of the country.

"For some 24,000 Iraqi civilians, and their families and friends, the year was one of devastating and irreparable tragedy," the IBC said.

The body count project was founded in January 2003 by volunteers from Britain and the United States who sought to quantify the human consequences of the US-led military intervention in Iraq, including general unrest.

The group said that as of January 1 2008 there had been between 81,174 and 88,585 violent civilian deaths since the start of the US-led Iraq invasion in 2003.