22 dead in fresh wave of attacks before Eid

Security personnel inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Kirkuk on Thursday A wave of attacks across Iraq on Thursday killed at least 22 people, as an analyst warned of a potential escalation in violence to coincide with the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Officials reported more than 105 people were wounded in 15 explosions, including seven car bombs, a suicide attack, and a shooting, in nine cities and towns nationwide, a day after attacks left 13 people dead.
The latest unrest takes the overall death toll from violence this month to 164, with the worst of Thursday's violence striking Baghdad and the northern town of Daquq, with six people dying in each attack.
In the north Baghdad neighbourhood of Husseiniyah, a car bomb killed at least six people and wounded 26, according to an interior ministry official and a medical source.
Meanwhile in the town of Daquq, north of Baghdad in Kirkuk province, a suicide attacker killed six policemen and wounded 25 people when he blew himself up at an anti-terrorism department's compound, according to provincial police Brigadier General Sarhad Qader.
Attacks also struck Al-Garma, Kirkuk city, Tuz Khurmatu, Dibis, Mosul, Taji and Baquba, leaving seven dead and dozens wounded.
In Al-Garma, near the former insurgent bastion of Fallujah west of Baghdad, four policemen were killed and three others wounded in a shooting at a checkpoint, according to police Major Enes Mahmud and Dr Omar Dalli at Fallujah hospital.
As emergency responders and civilians rushed to the scene, a roadside bomb exploded, wounding three others.
In the disputed, ethnically-mixed northern city of Kirkuk, four car bombs exploded within 45 minutes, killing one person and wounding 20 others, according to a police official and Dr Karim Wali at the city's main hospital.
Among those wounded were an unspecified number of security forces members, the officials said.
Three roadside bombs exploded in Tuz Khurmatu near the home of a district chief, or mukhtar, killing his wife and leaving him and his three sons wounded, according to police and a local medic.
In Dibis, two roadside bombs near the home of a police captain killed his brother and wounded four others, including the captain himself, police and a doctor at nearby Kirkuk hospital said.
Explosions in Mosul, Taji and on the outskirts of Baquba -- a magnetic "sticky bomb attached to a vehicle" and two separate car bombs -- left 18 others wounded, security and medical officials said.
A day earlier, 13 people were killed in attacks north of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, 3 suicide bombers wearing explosive belts were killed by the Iraqi security forces after a clash in Ramadi city, in Anbar province, western Iraq. In a separate incident, two Yezidi brothers were killed by gunmen in Mosul.
Provincial police chief Maj Gen Hadi Kassar said in a press statement: "Police forces clashed on Wednesday afternoon with three gunmen wearing explosive belts and riding a car attached to a bomb, after giving chase.”
The forces were able to bomb the car, killing the suicide bombers who were inside it.
Kassar added that the suicide bombers planned to carry out bombings against civilians and security forces, and that the force cordoned off the place of the incident. The bodies were transported to the forensic department to identify their identity.
The province of Anbar and its centre Ramadi, about 110 km west of Baghdad, has witnessed a wave of violence in spite of a campaign  by Iraqi security forces against bases believed to be harbouring militants involved in a growing number of assassination attempts.
The forces were able to kill some militants and arrest a number of others.
In a separate incident, a police source in Ninewa province, about 405km north of Baghdad, reported that two brothers of the Yezidi family were killed by unknown gunmen inside their home in western Mosul.
The source told Arabstoday that the attackers on Wednesday afternoon stormed a house belonging to the Yezidi family in the Qahtaniya area of Baaj district, 125km west of Mosul, and fired machine guns on the two brothers, who were in their 20s.
The two, Mahlo Miji Ouso and Jalal Miji Ouso, died immediately.
The same source said that a cache of weapons and explosives was found in Nineveh. Twenty kilograms of the explosive TNT, 15 hand grenades and light weapons were uncovered in the raid carried out by a security force in Kharrar, 50km south of Mosul.
On Monday, British security firm AKE Group warned that "terrorists in Iraq may be planning mass casualty explosive attacks against large gatherings of civilians to mark the end of Ramadan later this week."
"We haven't received any specific intelligence on the matter but they (insurgents) may be 'saving up' their willing bombers for the closing period of the month, due around 17-18 August," AKE analyst John Drake said.
The 164 people killed this month include at least 76 security force members, according to an AFP tally based on security and medical sources.
While violence has decreased from its peak in 2006 and 2007, attacks remain common across Iraq. There were attacks on 27 of the 31 days in July, and there has been at least one shooting or bombing every day this month.
Official figures put the number of people killed in attacks in July at 325, the highest monthly death toll since August 2010.