BAGHDAD: Violence and military operations claimed the lives of more than 16,000 civilians in Iraq last year, a research group said Thursday, down about 1,000 from the year before.

In its annual report, the London-based Iraq Body Count reported that 16,361 Iraqi civilians died in 2016. The northern province of Ninevah was the worst hit, with 7,431 people killed. The capital, Baghdad, was next with 3,714 civilians killed, the research showed.

On the military front Thursday, Iraqi forces advancing from the north and east converged in Mosul, the capital of Ninevah. The U.S. special envoy to the anti-Daesh (ISIS) coalition, Brett McGurk, called the advance a “milestone” in a statement posted on Twitter.

Forces from the elite Counter Terrorism Service took control of 7th Nissan and Sadeek districts, linking up with army troops that had pushed through Hadba neighborhood, CTS spokesman Sabah al-Numan told Reuters.

“This is considered contact between the troops of the northern front and CTS. This ... will prevent any gap between the axes which the enemy could use,” he said by phone.

“The enemy is now located only in front of the troops, not at their sides,” he added.

New tactics, including a night raid, better defenses against suicide car bomb attacks and improved coordination between the army and security forces operating on different fronts, have helped forge momentum, U.S and Iraqi officers say.

Iraq’s militarized federal police and rapid response division, an elite Interior Ministry unit, are also battling Daesh inside Mosul. They made gains Thursday in southeastern districts where advances have been particularly tough.

Iraq Body Count documents deaths from militants shooting captives, other gunfire, suicide attacks, bombings, air attacks and shelling.

Last year, the greatest causes of death were the shooting of captives and other gunfire, which accounted for more than half of all civilian deaths, it said.

The group began documenting civilian deaths in Iraq after 2003, and relies on media reports, non-governmental organizations and Iraqi government sources. The report said 17,578 people were killed in 2015 and 20,218 in 2014.

The report comes only days after the United Nations in Iraq released a report that found 6,878 civilians were killed by violence in 2016.

The U.N. mission said the numbers didn’t include casualties among civilians in Iraq’s western Anbar province for the months of May, July, August and December.

It said it was hindered from verifying casualty numbers in conflict areas and from secondary effects of violence.