BAGHDAD: More than 1,000 Iraqis were killed in sectarian violence in July, the highest monthly death toll since 2008, the United Nations said on Thursday, as terrorist groups stepped up their insurgency against Iraq’s Shiite-led government.

Most of the 1,057 victims were civilians, killed in a relentless campaign of bombings and shootings that some Iraqis fear could drag the country into another war.

“We haven’t seen such numbers in more than five years, when the blind rage of sectarian strife that inflicted such deep wounds upon this country was finally abating,” Gyorgy Busztin, acting UN envoy to Iraq, said.

He called on Iraqi leaders to take immediate action to stop the “senseless bloodshed” and prevent a return to the “dark days” of 2006-07, when the number of people killed per month sometimes exceeded 3,000. July’s toll brought the number of people killed in militant attacks since the start of the year to 4,137.

The worst affected governorate was Baghdad, where 238 people were killed in July, followed by Salahuddin, Nineveh, Diyala, Kirkuk and Anbar.

Iraq’s deteriorating security was highlighted last week when hundreds of convicts ran free after simultaneous attacks on two high-security prisons.