BAGHDAD: More than 1,000 people were killed in violence in Iraq in May, making it the deadliest month since the sectarian slaughter of 2006-07, the United Nations reported on Saturday, stoking fears of a return to civil war.
"That is a sad record," Martin Kobler, the UN envoy in Baghdad, said in a statement. "Iraqi political leaders must act immediately to stop this intolerable bloodshed."
This week multiple bombings battered capital Baghdad, killing nearly 100 people. Most of he 1,045 people killed in May were civilians, UN figures showed.
The UN toll is higher than a Reuters estimate of 600 deaths based on police and hospital officials. Such counts can vary depending on sourcing, while numbers often increase beyond initial estimates as wounded people die.
The renewed bloodletting reflects worsening tensions between Iraq's government and the Sunni minority, seething with resentment at their treatment since Saddam Hussein was overthrown by the US-led invasion of 2003 and later hanged.
Al Qaeda's local wing and other armed groups are now regaining ground lost during their battle with US troops who pulled out in December 2011
Officials in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government say al Qaeda's wing, Islamic State of Iraq, and Naqshbandi insurgents linked to ex-officers in Saddam's army, are now trying to provoke militia reaction.
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