Mediaboss Marketing

(CNN) -

It's been a bloody year in Iraq, where ISIS militants have seized swaths of territory and remain on the offensive. And the latest figures from the Iraq Body Count monitoring project show that civilians, as so often in war, are paying a heavy price.

At least 17,049 civilians were recorded killed in Iraq during 2014, Iraq Body Count said, roughly double the number recorded in 2013 -- which in turn was about double that of the previous year.

The shocking rise in deaths in 2014 is due in large part to the ISIS offensive and the military response to it by Iraqi forces and the U.S.-led international coalition, the group said.

Based in London and made up of academics and human rights and anti-war activists, Iraq Body Count monitors and compiles media reports of Iraqi civilian casualties resulting from the violence that followed the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Since that invasion, "not a single day has passed without Iraqi civilians being killed," it said. "The year 2014, however, reflects an increase in violence to levels not seen since the worst years of 2006 and 2007."

According to the group, the greatest number of deaths in 2014 were in Baghdad, Nineveh, Salaheddin and Anbar provinces, which together account for about 80% of civilian deaths.

The highest number of civilian deaths was seen in Baghdad, with more than 4,750 reported.

More than 3,600 civilians were killed in western Anbar province, half of them by the Iraqi military in daily airstrikes, primarily in and around Falluja, the group said.

Meanwhile, in Salaheddin and Nineveh provinces, the killings of civilians by ISIS contributed significantly to the death toll, it said.

Go here to read the rest:
Iraq civilian deaths dramatically up in 2014