UNITED NATIONS, June 6 (Xinhua) -- The top UN envoy in Iraq on Thursday condemned the killing of at least 14 people in an desert area in the country's western province of Anbar and called it a " cold-blooded murder," said Martin Nesirky, spokesperson for UN secretary-general, at a daily briefing.
Martin Kobler, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Iraq, urged the Iraqi security authorities to take swift and decisive action to arrest the perpetrators of this crime and to bring them to justice, the spokesman said.
The UN envoy also extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims as well as to the Iraqi police.
According to earlier reports, unidentified gunmen stopped a bus carrying 11 policemen and three civilians at a fake checkpoint on the main road near the town of al-Nukhaib, some 240 km southwest of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, and shot them dead.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack.
According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) led by Kobler, a total of 1,045 Iraqis were killed and another 2,397 wounded in acts of terrorism and violence in May, making it one of the deadliest months on record.
"That is a sad record," Kobler said in a news release from UNAMI. "Iraqi political leaders must act immediately to stop this intolerable bloodshed."
Violence is still common in Iraq despite a dramatic decrease since its peak in 2006 and 2007, when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.
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