Terrorist attacks and sectarian violence in Iraq last year claimed some 5,000 civilian lives, the lowest number since the US-led invasion of 2003.

Human rights group Iraq Body Count says security in Iraq has improved dramatically compared with 2008, when nearly twice as many civilians were killed in violence. The organisation warns that security has stopped improving in recent months, with nearly as many fatalities in the second half of the year as in the first.

The violence was worst in Mosul, where 735 people were killed, making the city more dangerous than the capital Baghdad. In 2009, US troops killed 63 civilians, far fewer than in 2008, when they were responsible for 365 deaths.

(Photo: Flickr / The U.S.Army)