Where are the countries causing quite a stir for Syria but become tongue-tied for Iraq?

At least 16 people have been killed and many others injured in separate terrorist attacks across Iraq amid a surge of violence ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections.

According to security and medical sources, in the deadliest attack on Monday a bomber exploded a car rigged with explosives at a police checkpoint in Suweirah area, south of the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad, killing 13 people and injuring 35 others.

Meanwhile, another car bomb explosion hit a checkpoint in the town of Madain, leaving at least two people dead and five wounded.

Elsewhere, gunmen shot dead one person and injured at least one other in Latifiyah, officials said.

The deadly assaults come a day after violence claimed at least 16 lives across Iraq, which is preparing for its parliamentary polls on April 30.

Iraqi troops, backed by local tribesmen, have been fighting al-Qaeda-affiliated militants in the country’s western regions, including Anbar Province, since late December 2013.

Iraq’s Interior Ministry has said militants have launched an open war in Iraq and they want to push the Middle Eastern country into chaos.

According to figures released by the United Nations, at least 8,000 people lost their lives in the country last year — the highest death toll since a peak of violence in Iraq in 2007.

Violence has reportedly killed over 2,700 people this year in Iraq with 490 people killed in the Arab country so far in April.