MILAN (AP) — The number of executions worldwide rose last year despite a general global trend toward capital punishment abolition, according to a report released Friday by an Italian anti-death penalty group.

The organization Hands off Cain, based in Rome, said Friday that at least 4,106 people were executed in 2013, up from 3,967 in 2012, due to increases in Iran, which recorded the highest number of executions in 15 years, and Iraq, which had the highest number since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein.