Bombings in Iraq, including one against an MP's convoy, killed five people and wounded 18 on Wednesday, just days ahead of the country's first elections since US troops departed, officials said. In the deadliest attack, a car bomb exploded near an army checkpoint in Abu Ghraib, west of the capital, killing two people and wounding six, while another car bomb in the Jihad area of south Baghdad killed one person and wounded six, an interior ministry official and medical sources said.

Bombs against Sunni Muslim worshippers in Baghdad and north of the capital killed 12 people on Friday, officials said, the latest in an uptick in violence ahead of provincial elections next week. In the deadliest single blast, a roadside bomb struck after prayers at the Omar bin Abdul Aziz mosque, in the town of Kanaan in restive Diyala province, a police colonel and a doctor said. Overall, 12 people were killed and 30 others wounded, the sources said.

Bombings in and around the Iraqi capital, including two car bombs near a football field, killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 60 others on Thursday, security and medical officials said. With the latest violence, more than 210 people have been killed and over 550 wounded in attacks in February, according to an AFP toll based on security and medical sources. An interior ministry official said one car bomb exploded near a football field in the Shuala area of Baghdad, followed by a second after security forces arrived at the scene.