BAGHDAD -- More than 800 people were killed in Iraq in violence throughout August, the UN said Sunday. That was down somewhat from July, but still one of the highest monthly tolls in recent years.

Violence in Iraq has spiked following a deadly crackdown by the Shiite-led government on a Sunni protest camp in northern Iraq in April.

Attacks including waves of multiple coordinated car bombings, mostly blamed on al-Qaida's local branch, target the military, police and Shiite civilians. The scale of the bloodshed is intensifying fears Iraq is heading back toward the widespread Sunni-Shiite sectarian killing that peaked in 2006 and 2007. Security forces have tried to ratchet up counterinsurgency operations in response, but do not appear to have made a major dent in the pace of attacks.

The UN mission in Iraq said it recorded 804 people killed in August, including members of Iraq's security forces but not insurgents. The capital Baghdad was the part of the country worst affected, with 317 killed. The U.N. figure was lower than its July death toll, which stood at 1,057.

The report says a total of about 5,000 people were killed since the start of 2013.

The UN said that 716 of those killed in August were civilians and 88 were Iraqi security forces.

Attacks continued Sunday, leaving six dead.

A roadside bomb went off near an outdoor market, killing three people including a woman and wounding four others in the Shiite town of Dujail, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Also, a car bomb exploded in a residential area in the in the ethnically mixed town of Tuz Khormato, killing three people and wounding 16, said the town's police chief, Col. Hussein Ali Rasheed.

Tuz Khormato, a frequent flashpoint for violence, sits in a band of territory contested by Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen about 200 kilometers (130 miles) north of Baghdad.

Medics in nearby hospitals confirmed the casualty figures for both attacks. The officials other than Col. Rasheed spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Also on HuffPost:

  • German Chancellor Angela Merkel drinks beer in a beer tent during a fair in Abensberg, southern Germany, Monday, Sept. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/dapd, Lennart Preiss)

  • German chancellor Angela Merkel drinks beer during a political Ash Wednesday meeting of her Christian Democratic Party, CDU, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , in Demmin, eastern Germany Wednesday Feb. 13, 2013. (AP Photo/dpa, Stefan Sauer)

  • German Chancellor Angela Merkel drinks a pint of Stoertebeker Bio'1402' Kellerbier at the New Year's reception of her constituency in the brewery in Stralsund, Germany, Friday, Feb. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/dpa, Stefan Sauer)

  • German Chancellor Angela Merkel drinks a beer as the attends the opening of an Bavarian Oktoberfest at the Bavarian Sate Embassy in Berlin on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/dapd, Adam Berry)

  • German chancellor Angela Merkel drinks a glass of beer during the Ash Wednesday meeting of the Christian Democratic Union, CDU, of Mecklenburg Western-Pommerania in Demmin eastern Germany, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/dapd/ Jens Koehler)

  • Edmund Stoiber, bavarian state governour and head of the Christian Social Union (CSU), and Angela Merkel, German chancellor and head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), cheer with beer mugs during the 60th anniversary of the CSU on December 3, 2005 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Jan Pitman/Getty Images)

  • German Chancellor Angela Merkel of the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) drinks a beer after her speech at a campaign event of the Christian Social Union (CSU) in a beer tent in Dachau, southern Germany on August 20, 2013. (GUENTER SCHIFFMANN/AFP/Getty Images)

  • German Chancellor and Chairwoman of the German Christian Democrats (CDU) Angela Merkel raises her beer after speaking at an election campaign stop in a fest tent on August 20, 2013 in Dachau, Germany. (Photo by Joerg Koch/Getty Images)

  • Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) holds a beer mug during an election campaign rally on September 7, 2009 in Grasbrunn, Germany. (Photo by Miguel Villagran/Getty Images)

  • German Chancellor Angela Merkel (C) and her ruling party CDU candidate for the elections in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) state, Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen (L) share a beer during his last campaign meeting on May 11, 2012 in Duesseldorf. (PATRIK STOLLARZ/AFP/GettyImages)

  • Picture taken on July 16, 2009 shows German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev toasting mugs of beer in Munich. (MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Bavaria's State Premier Guenther Beckstein toasts with German Chancellor Angela Merkel with a 'Mass' of beer in a tent installed in front of Berlin's city hall on September 17, 2008 during the Berlin version of Bavaria's world famous 'Oktoberfest' beer festival, starting in Munich on September 20. (MICHAEL GOTTSCHALK/AFP/Getty Images)

  • German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L), Erwin Huber (2ndR), head of Christian Social Union (CSU) and local politicians cheer with beer mugs in a beer tent on February 28, 2008 in Augsburg, Germany. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

  • Edmund Stoiber (R), CDU-CSU's chancellor candidate, poses CDU's president Angela Merkel on the opening of the October Feast, the famous German Beer festival, 21 September in Munich. (ERIC FEFERBERG/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Angela Merkel, election favorite and leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is drinking during the opening day of the Oktoberfest beer festival on 06 September 2005 in Berlin. (MICHAEL KAPPELER/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Angela Merkel, head of the CDU political party, Germany's main opposition party, declines an offer of a beer while visiting the Summer Fest of the represenation of the German state of Lower Saxony June 27, 2005 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)