Nearly 6,000 Iraqi civilians, policemen and soldiers were killed in violence in 2005, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

Among the 5,736 dead, there were 4,020 civilians, 1,241 policemen and 475 soldiers.

In addition, 1,734 people defined as terrorists were killed, the ministry said.

The highest death rate came in September, when 557 people were killed, according to the data.

However, the figures given by the Interior Ministry did not include some 1,000 people killed in a stamped on a bridge during a religious festival in Baghdad in August.

Independent organizations estimate that around 30,000 civilians have been killed since the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2006)