A British-American advocacy group puts the civilian cost of the Iraq war at about 25,000 lives.

"We were fearful that there would be many lives lost," said John Sloboda of Iraq Body Count and the Oxford Research Project on Tuesday.

"We were also fearful that the governments prosecuting this war would not be doing an official count themselves. Both predictions unfortunately turned out to be true."

The 25-page report provides analysis from March 2003, when the U.S. and supporting countries invaded Iraq, to March of this year.

About 30 per cent of the casualties occurred in March and April 2003. On May 1, 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush declared major combat operations to be over in Iraq.

But if one looks at the post-invasion period, there were almost twice as many killed in year two (11,351) to year one (6,215).

Here is a breakdown of who's doing the killing:

• U.S. and allied forces: 37 per cent
• Criminal attacks: 36 per cent
• "Unknown agents" attacking non-military targets: 11 per cent
• "Anti-occupation" forces: Nine per cent

The two most dangerous places in Iraq are Baghdad, where almost half (11,264) of all deaths occurred and Fallujah, with 1,874 deaths.

Fallujah has been an insurgent stronghold. U.S. forces conducted a major battle there last November.

The most lethal weaponry is explosives, accounting for 53 per cent of all deaths. Of deaths due to explosives, almost two-thirds were due to air strikes.

Children were most affected by air strikes, suffering disproportionate deaths, especially from unexploded ordnance like cluster bomblets.

Women and children account for 20 per cent of civilian deaths.

The number of wounded is estimated at 42,500, with 40 per cent of those occurring during the invasion phase.

Coalition forces haven't kept their own statistics. Gen. Tommy Franks, a former U.S. commander, once said, "We don't do body counts."

The Iraqi interior ministry released statistics on Friday showing 8,175 deaths over a 10-month period starting in August 2004.

However, that figure didn't include deaths in Kurdish areas or deaths caused by occupation forces.

Neither British Prime Minister Tony Blair nor U.S. President George W. Bush has specifically commented on the civilian death toll in Iraq.

But Bush did repeat his country's objective: "We're laying the foundation for freedom. A free Iraq, a democratic Iraq in the heart of the Middle East is a part of a vision that understands free societies are peaceful societies."

Last week, a suicide bomber killed 26 children who were getting sweets from U.S. soldier.

On the weekend, 98 people died when a suicide bomber blew up a fuel tanker truck in Mussayib south of Baghdad.

CTV's Tom Kennedy said since the report's release Tuesday morning, at least 31 more people died in Iraq.

With a report from CTV's Tom Kennedy