Iraq attacks, bombs at Kurdish offices kill 23

A double bombing at the offices of two Kurdish political parties north of Baghdad and other attacks in Iraq killed at least 23 people on Monday, officials said.

The twin attack took place in the town of Tuz Khormato, about 200 kilometers (130 miles) north of Baghdad, when a suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden truck into a checkpoint leading up to the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the nearby Kurdistan Communist Party around noon on Monday.

Shalal Abdoul, the town mayor, said another truck bomb exploded, presumably detonated by remote control, as people rushed to the scene of the first attack. A total of 15 people were killed and as many as 110 were wounded in the explosions, he said. Several houses and cars were destroyed in the attack.

It was the second double bombing at Kurdish offices in as many days. On Sunday, a suicide bomber and a car bomb explosion targeted PUK offices in the town of Jalula, northwest of Baghdad, in the ethnically mixed Diyala province. Nineteen people died in that attack.

Also on Monday, gunmen opened fire on a security checkpoint northeast of Baghdad, killing four soldiers and two policemen. The shooting happened in the town of Kanaan, about 75 kilometers (47 miles) northeast of the capital.

An in Baghdad, gunmen killed a real estate agent after spraying his office with bullets in the city's west, police said. Also, a government employee was killed in when a sticky bomb attached to his car exploded in eastern Baghdad.

Medical officials confirmed the casualties for all attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Iraq is currently grappling with its worst surge in violence since the sectarian bloodletting of 2006 and 2007, when the country was pushed to the brink of civil war despite the presence of tens of thousands of U.S. troops.

According to U.N. figures, 8,868 people were killed in Iraq in 2013. The U.N. mission said that May was the deadliest month so far this year, with 799 Iraqis killed in violence, including 603 civilians.