BAGHDAD, Oct 22: Over 4,300 Iraqis, nearly 70 per cent of them civilians, were killed by insurgents in the first nine months of this year, an Interior Ministry official said on Saturday. However, NGOs put the figure at 25,000 or even more.

Figures on Iraqi casualties since the March 2003 US-led invasion have been unreliable and difficult to compile, partly because US-led forces say they do not count civilian deaths.—Reuters