A total of 1,013 people – 795 civilians, 122 soldiers and 96 policemen – died as a result of violence, according to data compiled by the health, interior and defense ministries.

Sectarian and political violence have gripped Iraq for months, but the situation has been worsened by recent fighting in Iraq's western Anbar province.

The release of the January’s death toll comes amid a month-long standoff between the Iraqi army and anti-government fighters in the western province of Anbar. So far, the standoff has forced more than 140,000 people to flee their homes, the UN refugee agency said.

Earlier this week, Iraq’s fugitive Vice-President Tariq Hashemi claimed that there is a threat that an armed stand-off could spread to other parts of the country as extremists who are opposed to Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki, grow.

“I’m not optimistic about the future ... I think this spark in Anbar will spread to other provinces,” Hashemi said in an interview with Reuters news agency.

The violence in Anbar escalated at the beginning of January with Iraqi security forces, Sunni tribesmen and al-Qaeda-linked groups fighting for control of the cities of Falluja and Ramadi.

January's overall death toll is the highest released by the ministries since April 2008, when 1,073 people were killed. A resurgence of what the Iraqi authorities insist are foreign-sponsored sectarian and political violence claimed the lives of 8,868 people in 2013, according to estimates from the United Nations.

Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki has blamed Saudi Arabia for sponsoring al-Qaeda-linked terrorists responsible for many of the bombings in the country.

A study released recently by academics based in the United States, Canada and Iraq said nearly half a million people have died from war-related causes in Iraq since the US-led military occupation of the country in 2003.

NTJ/MB