The world body said local authorities had recorded 298 civilian deaths in Anbar, but that it could not confirm the figures independently due to the chaos in the desert region.

Outside Anbar, the bloodshed was worst in Baghdad, where 239 civilians were killed, followed by Salahuddin province to the north with 121 dead. A total of 1,381 people were wounded.

The United Nations said it had confirmed 703 deaths in Iraq in February, compared to 733 in January, excluding Anbar.

The figures suggest that violence has not abated since 2013 when 7,818 civilians were killed. That was Iraq’s deadliest year since 2008, when the civilian death toll stood at 6,787.

The bloodshed remains below the levels seen in 2006 and 2007 when sectarian Shi’ite-Sunni killings reached their peak.

Insecurity worsened dramatically in April when troops and police forcibly cleared a Sunni protest camp north of Baghdad, killing dozens of protesters, most of them unarmed…