Attacks in Iraq on Tuesday killed four people, including a child and a protest organiser, and wounded 14, security and medical officials said. In Fallujah, west of Baghdad, gunmen killed an anti-Qaeda militiaman along with his brother, while a car bomb in the main northern city of Mosul killed a child and wounded 14 other people, police and doctors said. In Diyala province just north of the capital, gunmen killed anti-government protest organiser Abdulrahman al-Badri, officials said. Protests broke out in Sunni areas of Shiite-majority Iraq more than four months ago.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition won the most provincial council seats in seven of the 12 provinces that voted, according to results released on Saturday. However, no list won a majority of seats in any of the provinces. The vote for provincial councils was the first election held since US troops withdrew from Iraq in late 2011, and was seen as an important gauge of Maliki's popularity ahead of a general election next year.

Violence in Iraq rose sharply in April, killing 460 people according to AFP figures, as May started off with attacks that left 13 people dead Wednesday, including six police and four anti-Qaeda fighters. The majority of the April deaths came during a wave of unrest that began near the end of the month when security forces moved on Sunni anti-government protesters in north Iraq, sparking clashes that killed 53 people.

Five car bombs mainly targeting Shiite areas south of Baghdad killed 18 people on Monday, officials said, as Iraq's parliament speaker demanded the government's resignation and early elections. Meanwhile Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met Nechirvan Barzani, the premier of the autonomous Kurdistan region, and they both agreed to enhance security coordination after the deployment of Kurdish forces in the disputed province of Kirkuk sharply raised tensions.