Scenes like this were a regular occurrence during the long, bloody conflict.

The Iraqi government has released official figures for the number of deaths during the period between 2004 and 2011, during which time the country was under siege from a coalition of American and other nations’ forces trying to drive out the government of former-dictator Saddam Hussein, and subsequently install and reinforce a new government, all while quelling repeated outbreaks of sectarian violence in and around capital Baghdad, as well as in other parts of the country.

On December 15, 2011, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta officially declared the Iraq War over. The last U.S. troops left Iraqi territory on December 18, 2011. Since then, sectarian violence has only increased as the Iraqi security forces struggle to maintain order.

In a government statement, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh announced that “the number of victims from April 5, 2004 to December 31, 2011 reached 69,263 martyrs and 239,133 wounded”.

“These figures represent the total number of victims who fell as a result of terrorist attacks and violence and military operations,” the statement said.

The deadliest year was 2006, when 21 539 people were killed and 39 329 wounded, as Iraq was engulfed in bloody sectarian conflict, while in 2011,  2777 people were killed, the statement said.

Baghdad saw the highest number of people killed between 2004 and 2011 at 23 898, while Muthanna province in the south saw the lowest at 94, it said.

The war’s most infamous casualty was former dictator Saddam Hussein, who was hanged for his crimes against Iraq in December 2006.

There has been some controversy over the different death tolls that different organisations have released for this recent period of conflict in Iraq. The human rights ministry said in an October 2009 report that 85 694 people were killed between 2004 and 2008, while the US military’s Central Command posted figures on its website in July 2010 that indicated that 76 939 Iraqis, including security forces members, had been killed from January 2004 to August 2008. Independent British website www.iraqbodycount.org says that at least 114 584 civilians were killed in violence in Iraq.

[Source: Times LIVE]