Feb 5 (Reuters) - In his final State of the Union speech, President George W. Bush said Iraq had seen declining violence over the past year and growing political reconciliation. Bush largely attributed the drop in attacks to the deployment of an extra 30,000 U.S. troops he ordered a year ago and to the emergence of Sunni Arab groups willing to make common cause with American forces to fight al Qaeda militants. At the end of 2007, U.S. commanders hailed a big improvement in security. Here are some details on the decline in casualties. * U.S. MILITARY: -- U.S. military deaths have reached 3,945 since the invasion in 2003. According to icasualties.org, an independent Web site that tracks military deaths, there was a steady decline in the second half of 2007. Nevertheless, it was the deadliest year for U.S. troops in Iraq, underscoring a new counter-insurgency strategy of moving troops off large, relatively safe bases and into small neighbourhood garrisons. Monthly U.S. death tolls 1-2007 - 83 2-2007 - 81 3-2007 - 81 4-2007 - 104 5-2007 - 126 6-2007 - 101 7-2007 - 78 8-2007 - 84 9-2007 - 65 10-2007 - 38 11-2007 - 37 12-2007 - 23 1-2008 - 40 * IRAQI CIVILIANS: -- Violent civilian deaths in Iraq in December were down 75 percent from a year ago and down 76 percent in January, according to official Iraqi figures. -- The figures, compiled by the interior, health and defence ministries, revealed that 481 civilians died violently in Iraq in December, versus 1,930 who were killed in December 2006, when the country was on the brink of civil war. In January 2008, 466 were killed compared with 1,971 in the same month a year ago. -- Iraqi figures showed that more civilians died overall in 2007 (16,232) than in 2006 (12,360). However, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) has said 34,452 Iraqi civilians were killed and more than 36,000 wounded in 2006. -- The latest tolls from the widely cited human rights group Iraq Body Count (IBC) show that up to around 88,000 civilians have been killed since 2003. Of those, some 22,586 to 24,159 civilian deaths were recorded in 2007 through the Web site's own monitoring of media and official reports. -- With two exceptions (May and July), the 2007 civilian death toll in Baghdad has fallen steadily month on month, according to Iraq Body Count. By December 2007 this had fallen to 246, about one-seventh of the starting January total of 1,683. -- In contrast, the monthly toll outside Baghdad increased substantially between January (1,112) and August (1,604), before a steep drop to around 700 per month and below for September through December, its figures show. Sources: Reuters/ www.icasualties.org * /www.iraqbodycount.net ** NOTES: * = www.icasualties.org uses official information from Centcom or the Department of Defense. The U.S-led military coalition toll includes casualties from Iraq and the surrounding area where troops are stationed. ** = www.iraqbodycount.net (IBC), run by academics and peace activists, based on reports from at least two media sources. The IBC says on its Web site the figure underestimates the true number of casualties. (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)
A police officer stands guard during search operations in Kerbala, 110 km (70 miles) south of Baghdad, January 30, 2008. Two suspected insurgents were arrested and weapons confiscated during a raid ...
