BAGHDAD, Iraq – The Iraqi government said yesterday that far more civilians than soldiers or police were killed in violence over the first six months of this year. An Associated Press count found a similar trend.

Compiling casualty figures is difficult in Iraq due to the chaos of war, poor communications, weakness of Iraqi institutions, and the difficulty of separating civilians from combatants in a conflict where insurgents often wear civilian clothing.

Between January 1 and June 30 of this year, figures from the Ministries of the Interior and the Defense showed 275 Iraqi soldiers and 620 police were killed in bombings, assassinations, or armed clashes with insurgents.

By contrast, 1,594 civilians were killed during the same period, the Ministry of Health said in response to an AP request. Government figures put the insurgent death toll for the six months at 781.

The AP tally found at least 1,786 civilians and Iraqi security forces were killed in Iraq from April 28 to July 13 – a sharp spike over previous months as insurgents ratcheted up attacks.

Between April 28 and July 13, at least 639 Iraqi security forces and at least 1,147 Iraqi civilians were killed, the AP tally shows.

Insurgents have not said they are targeting civilians, although some car bombings in Shiite Muslim cities appear to have been aimed at causing mass casualties in a community which some Islamic extremists view as including heretics.

Civilians do not have bulletproof vests or armored cars, so may be killed even when attacks are aimed at police or army patrols.

The AP tally is compiled from hospital, police, and military officials cited in news stories, as well as accounts from reporters and photographers at the scene of attacks. However, sometimes the bodies are taken by families directly to burial so they are not included in the count.

Police and hospital casualty counts from specific incidents often differ. Health Ministry figures, for example, are compiled from reports by government hospitals but may not include victims never taken to a clinic and buried by their families.

Additionally, communication failures prevent contact with large parts of the country, meaning some attacks may not be recorded. In some cases, hospital staff are under pressure to over- or under-report casualties for political reasons.

During the March 2004 American siege of Fallujah, for instance, widely inflated civilian death tolls helped generate strong public opposition, promoting the Americans to suspend the attack.