1,420 people killed in Iraq in August: UN

A total of 1,420 Iraqis have been killed and 1,370 injured in terrorist attacks and violence during August, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said in a statement Monday.

The statement said that 1,265 civilians, including 77 policemen, and 155 Iraqi security forces personnel were killed, Xinhua reported.

At least 1,198 civilians, including 105 civilian policemen, were wounded.

UNAMI excluded the casualties in Anbar province where fierce clashes flared up after Iraqi police dismantled an anti-government protest site outside Ramadi in late December last year.

However, the statement obtained information from the health directorate in Anbar province, saying that the total civilians killed up to Aug 31 in the provincial capital city of Ramadi and the city of Fallujah was 268 the number of those injured was 796.

UN envoy and UNAMI chief Nickolay Mladenov voiced concerns about the worsening violence s te Islamic State (IS) Sunni insurgent group displaced and killed hundreds of thousands of people.

"In August alone the UN estimates that 600,000 people have been displaced while thousands continue to be targeted and killed by the IS and associated armed groups simply on account of their ethnic or religious background," the statement quoted Mladenov as saying.

Iraq has been witnessing some of the worst violence in years.

Terrorism and violence have killed 5,576 civilians in Iraq in the first half of this year, with 11,666 more wounded, the UN said.