Iraqi civilian deaths dropped to 1,241 last month, according to figures issued on Sunday, the lowest since a US-led crackdown was launched in February in Baghdad and other violent regions of the country.

The latest numbers, compiled from interior, defence and health ministry figures and made available to AFP, indicate that 1,241 civilians died last month, compared to 1,951 in the previous month.

But in a bloody attack on June 19, a bomber detonated an explosives-laden truck near the Shiite Al-Kholani mosque in Baghdad, killing 87 people. More than 240 people were wounded.

In recent months US and Iraqi forces have been concentrating on dismantling bomb-making factories on the outskirts of Baghdad in an attempt to prevent the massive bombings that fuel the city's cycle of sectarian revenge.