HILLA, Feb 1: At least 70 people were killed in Iraq on Thursday, while security officials said bitter sectarian attacks had claimed the lives of nearly 2,000 civilians throughout the country in January.

In deserted southern Iraq, a grave containing the remains of 200 to 250 Kurds was discovered near the border with Saudi Arabia, a provincial official said.

A media watchdog group added that at least 65 media workers were killed and 20 kidnapped in the country in 2006, the most lethal year since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

Two suicide bombers killed 57 people and wounded 138 when they struck a packed market in the centre of Hilla, security and medical sources said.

Policemen tried to disarm the first bomber but were unable to prevent the twin blasts which struck a crowded market in the centre of the city, police officer Kazem al-Shamari said.

In central Baghdad, six people were killed and 12 wounded when an explosion blasted a bus on the main road in Karrada district, a security official said, adding that women standing outside the bus were among the wounded.

Another car bomb in central Baghdad left three people dead and seven others wounded, he added.

Four more people died in bomb and mortar attacks in the capital, and 30 bodies were also found in several districts.

Officials discovered a mass grave in the deserted southern province of Muthanna that held the bodies of 200 to 250 probably Kurdish prisoners, a provincial official said.

Amin Mohammed Amin said the grave was found west of the town of Salman, less than a kilometre from a former detention camp, thanks to tips from inhabitants of the sparsely populated region.

The grave extended over more than 200 square meters and included the bodies of men, women and children who wore traditional Kurdish clothing, he added.

In the meantime, a security source said nearly 2,000 civilians were killed in January, mostly in sectarian violence, and added that the number of wounded was also significantly higher than in December.

He said that “1,992 civilians were killed by violence in Iraq during the month of January,” speaking on condition of anonymity and citing health ministry figures.

These included dozens of unidentified bodies recovered each day across Iraq, 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 number of wounded civilians in January was 1,941 -- a sharp increase from 1,511 in December.

A UN report last month said more than 34,400 Iraqis had been killed by sectarian violence between the February 22, 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra and Dec 31.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh declined to comment on the latest figures. He has said in the past that Baghdad cannot provide its own figures because of chronic insecurity in the country.—AFP