Spate of attacks kill 21, wound 200 ahead of Iraq's local polls

A new wave of attacks, including 23 car bombings, struck the Iraqi cities, killed 21 people and wounded some 200 just five days ahead of the country's provincial polls.A total of 23 car bombs exploded on Monday morning rush hour in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the northern cities of Kirkuk, Tuz- Khurmato and Mosul, the central cities of Tikrit, Dowr and Hilla, in addition to the eastern province of Diyala, and the southern city of Nassriyah.Ten more bomb explosions, mortar rounds and a shooting attack occurred in Diyala province and the cities of Fallujah and Mosul during the day.No group has so far claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks, but al-Qaida front in Iraq frequently claimed the responsibility of most deadly attacks in the country.The deadliest attacks occurred in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad when seven car bombs separately ripped through the city during the morning rush hour, killing a total of 10 people and wounding some 52 others.One of Baghdad car bomb attacks occurred at a parking area on the main road of Baghdad airport when two car bombs went off near a convoy of the Iraqi lawmaker Baha al-Araji who survived the blasts unharmed, but one of his bodyguards was critically wounded.In Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, four car bombs separately went off in the city, killing two people and wounding 24 others.Elsewhere, three car bombs separately detonated in the city of Tuz-Khurmato some 200 km north of Baghdad, killing a total of five people and wounding some 49.In the mean time, two car bombs went off in Iraq's southern city of Nassriyah, some 375 km south of Baghdad, wounding at least 14 people.Two more car bombs struck two towns in Babil province in south of Baghdad, wounding a total of 19 people.In Salahudin province, two car bombs parked near an office of a political coalition running in the upcoming provincial polls detonated in the provincial capital city of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, wounding seven people.Separately, a suicide bomber blew up his explosive vest at a police checkpoint near the city of Dowr, some 20 km south of Tikrit, wounding 13 policemen.In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, a police officer was killed by a sticky bomb attached to his car in the town of Buhriz, south of the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad.On a separate incident, a car bomb went off in the city of Maqdadiyah, some 100 km northeast of Baghdad, wounding three people, while 10 more people were wounded in separate bomb and gunfire attacks across Diyala province.In addition, a car bomb detonated while Iraqi security forces were trying to defuse it in Tal Ubtta area, some 40 km west of Iraq's northern city of Mosul, killing a policeman and wounding two others.Another car bomb went off in southeastern Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, without causing casualty, while gunmen shot dead a man and a roadside bomb wounded a policeman and a civilian in separate incidents in the city.Also in the day, A roadside bomb explosion targeted a convoy of vehicles carrying Sa'id al-Lafi, a Sunni cleric and a leader of Sunni protests in Iraq's western province of Anbar, while the convoy was travelling near a village in northeast of the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The blast killed one of Lafi's bodyguards and wounded two others, a police source said.In a separate incident, a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, wounding three policemen, the source added.The attacks occurred despite the tight security measures as troops and dozens of checkpoints have been on highest alert in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities as part of the security precautions that preceded the early voting for the security members two days ago.Observers see that the daily violence and sporadic high-profile attacks raise questions about the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces to maintain security in the country ahead of the country's provincial polls scheduled on Saturday.They also see that the latest wave of violence are part of an attempt by the insurgent groups to show that they are capable of carrying out coordinated and high-profile attacks that could undermine the government's claims of providing security and stability to Iraqis ahead of the polls.