A total of 12,282 Iraqi civilians were killed and another 23,126 were injured in 2014, the highest incidence of violence in Iraq since 2007, UPI quoted the United Nations as saying. Nickolay Mladenov, head of the U.N. political mission in Iraq, said the country has been besieged with violence. Many of the deaths came in the later part of the year. In December alone, 1,101 Iraqis were killed and 1,868 were wounded. Mladenov warned the casualty figures "have to be considered as the absolute minimum" and expressed hope that peace will come soon.
