Baghdad, Iraq ? President Jalal Talabani urged Iraq’s feuding factions Wednesday to unite against surging crime and terrorism, saying Iraqis feel “shock, dismay and anger” at the ongoing slaughter.

The government reported 952 people – most of them civilians – died nationwide last month in “terrorist” violence, including attacks by sectarian death squads that torture and kill their victims before dumping the mutilated bodies in the streets.

“What is asked of the political parties is that they strenuously and clearly condemn these crimes, regardless of who the perpetrators are,” Talabani, a former Kurdish guerrilla commander, said in a statement. “Clerics – be they Muslim, Christians, Shiite or Sunni – from all factions should also issue edicts rejecting these acts.”

Figures from the ministries of health and interior showed that during April, 686 civilians were killed in politically motivated violence, along with 190 insurgents, 54 policemen and 22 Iraqi soldiers.

Eighty-two coalition troops – including 76 Americans, three Italians, one Romanian, one Britain and one Australian – died in Iraq during the same period.

The ministries’ figures for previous months were not available Wednesday night.

At least 3,550 Iraqis, including civilians, officials and security forces, have been killed in war-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally. That includes at least 615 in January, 741 in February, 1,038 in March and 801 in April.

U.S. officials say the relentless bloodshed adds new urgency to efforts by Iraq’s religiously and ethnically based parties to complete formation of a broad-based government.

The depth of religious tensions were apparent even in parliament, however, on Wednesday.

A Shiite Muslim lawmaker’s cell phone ring tone – intoning a Shiite religious chant with each call – sparked a scuffle that briefly shut down what was only the second full day of business for Iraq’s new legislature.

The confrontation between the bodyguard of lawmaker Ghufran al-Saidi and the security detail attached to the parliament’s Sunni Muslim speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, prompted a TV blackout of the session, an abrupt adjournment and a walkout by some lawmakers.

An outraged Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric and militia leader to whose party Saidi belongs, considered but apparently backed away from a boycott of the fledgling parliament over the spat, his aides indicated. The aides and Saidi said later that they were satisfied by a pledge of an investigation.