Six people were killed and 12 others wounded when a bomb tore through a bus in central Baghdad, a security official said.
BAGHDAD: At least 11 people were killed in Baghdad on Thursday as security officials said Iraq's raging sectarian conflict claimed the lives of nearly 2,000 civilians across the country in January.
Six people were killed and 12 others wounded when a bomb tore through a bus in central Baghdad, a security official said.
The explosion went off on the main road in the capital's Karrada district, the official said, adding that women standing outside the bus were among the wounded.
Another car bomb in central Baghdad left three people dead and wounded seven others, he said, adding that two more people were killed in other attacks in Baghdad.
Meanwhile, a security source said nearly 2,000 civilians were killed in January, mostly in the sectarian conflict, adding that the number of those wounded were also significantly higher than the previous month.
He said that "1,992 civilians were killed by violence in Iraq during the month of January," speaking on condition of anonymity and citing figures provided by the health ministry.
They included dozens of unidentified bodies recovered each day in the country, he said.
In December 2006, 1,925 Iraqis were reported killed, according to Iraqi sources, much lower than the United Nations' figure of 2,914 civilian deaths.
The security source today said that 586 "terrorists", or insurgent fighters, had also been killed and 1,921 arrested in January, up from December's figures of 314 killed and 1,034 detained.
65 media workers killed in Iraq in 2006
At least 65 media workers were killed and 20 kidnapped in Iraq in 2006, the most lethal year since US-led forces invaded the country in March 2003, a media watchdog group said on Thursday.
Iraq accounted for more than half of the 110 such deaths worldwide, Reporters Without Borders said in its annual survey of global press freedom.
Local Iraqi journalists paid the highest price, accounting for all but two of the 65 deaths in Iraq.
The figures made 2006 "the deadliest year since fighting began in the country in March 2003," the international media group said.
"Two were foreigners -- Paul Douglas, of the US network CBS, and his soundman James Brolan -- and the rest Iraqis."
Both Brolan and Douglas were Britons killed by a bomb in Baghdad.
"Local journalists living among the population have no special protection and are frontline targets," the report noted, adding that most of those killed were the targets of deliberate attacks.
Meanwhile, "'trading' in hostages increased in 2006, when 20 media workers were kidnapped (up from 14 in 2005) and seven of them executed," it said.
US journalist Jill Carroll was kidnapped on January 7, 2006 and released on March 30.
Two Iraqi reporters, Rim Zeid and Marwan Khazaal of Al-Sumariya TV, were seized by gunmen after a news conference on February 1 in the same area, and "their fate was still unknown at the end of 2006," the report said.
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