The United Nations mission in Iraq says almost 1,000 people were killed in terrorist attacks last month.



The vast majority of the 979 dead were civilians, with 92 being members of the security forces.

The UN says nearly 2,000 were injured with terrorists attacking people indiscriminately.

The worst of the violence was in the capital Baghdad.

September's toll brought the number of people killed so far this year to 5,740, exceeding the 2012's toll.

"As terrorists continue to target Iraqis indiscriminately, I call upon all political leaders to strengthen their efforts to promote national dialogue and reconciliation," UN envoy to Iraq Nickolay Mladenov said.

Sunni resentment of Shiite control driving the violence

After reaching a climax in 2006-07, violence in Iraq eased when Sunni tribesmen banded together and found common cause with US troops to rout the Sunni extremist Al Qaeda, forcing it underground.

But the group has been reinvigorated this year by growing resentment of Iraq's Shiite-led government, which minority Sunnis accuse of marginalising them since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Sunnis also accuse the Shiite dominated government of persecuting them, and Sunni extremists like the local Al Qaeda branch have been growing stronger amidst boiling resentment.

Shiite militias are also re-arming, taking the nation back to the brink of a sectarian civil war.

Members of each group are fighting in Syria, with Sunni rebels are fighting to topple a leader backed by Shiite Iran, further straining Iraq's delicate inter-communal balance.

The UN says the Syrian and Iraq battlefields are merging.

Unexploded bomb squad is latest target

In the latest violence, a suicide bomber drove up to a police station in Tikrit north of Baghdad and blew himself up, killing at least two guards.

Two gunmen disguised in police uniform then managed to enter the building, home to a unit specialising in bomb defusing, and clashed with staff inside for nearly one hour.

They killed three policemen, including a colonel, before they were shot, police said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but suicide bombings are the hallmark of Al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate, which merged with its Syrian counterpart earlier this year to form the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

On Tuesday, the combined group claimed responsibility for a series of car bombs targeting Shiites in Baghdad which killed 54 people a day earlier.

In a statement posted on militant internet forums, ISIL said it had carried out the bombings in revenge for what it described as a "campaign of torture, displacement, detainment and liquidation" of Sunnis by the Shiite-led government.

