WASHINGTON — Security crises in Egypt, Syria and other countries are overshadowing rising death tolls and new fears of civil war in Iraq, once the top U.S. priority in the Mideast. However, the prospect that sectarian violence could fuel instability beyond Iraq’s borders remains a concern for the Obama administration.

Officials and experts say the White House’s attention is focused elsewhere — even as more than 1,000 people were killed in Iraq in July, the deadliest month since 2008. At Thursday’s meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari, one of the main topics was flights of weapons from Iran across Iraqi airspace into Syria and back as well as the threat from al-Qaida fighters along the Iraqi-Syrian border.

Surveys show a majority of Americans favor President Barack Obama’s hands-off approach toward Iraq after withdrawing the U.S. military from the country in 2011 after nearly nine years of war, at least $767 billion spent in taxpayer funds and nearly 4,500 U.S. troops killed.

But after hitting a low level of violence immediately before the U.S. troops left, attacks have resurged in Iraq at a rate reminiscent of its darkest days. A wave of car bombs killed 33 people and wounded dozens others in Baghdad on Thursday, just the latest assault against a government staggering from sectarian political infighting.

“The security situation in Iraq is deteriorating rapidly and is of significant concern,” Sen. Bob Corker, top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Thursday.