DHAKA: Violence in Iraq killed more than 15,000 civilians and security personnel in 2014, government figures showed Thursday, making it the deadliest year since sectarian bloodshed in 2007.

Figures compiled by the health, interior and defence ministries put the death toll at 15,538, compared with 17,956 killed in 2007, during the height of Sunni-Shia sectarian killings.

The toll was also more than double the 6,522 people killed in 2013.

The year got off to a bloody start, with the government losing control of parts of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi and all of Fallujah – just a short drive from Baghdad – to anti-government fighters.

The violence was sparked by the demolition of the country’s main Sunni Arab anti-government protest camp near Ramadi in late 2013.

It spread to Fallujah, and security forces later withdrew from areas of both cities, leaving them open for capture.

That was a harbinger of events of June, when the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group spearheaded a major Islamic extremist offensive, sweeping security forces aside.

The militants overran Iraq’s second city Mosul and then drove south toward Baghdad, raising fears the capital itself would be attacked.

They were eventually stopped short, but seized swathes of five provinces north and west of the capital.

BDST: 2210 HRS, JAN 01, 2015