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| Bombs kill 23 across Iraq before local poll |
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 BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Car bombs and blasts in cities across Iraq, including two explosions at a checkpoint outside Baghdad's international airport, killed at least 23 people on Monday days before provincial elections.No one claimed responsibility for the attacks in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Tuz Khurmato and other towns to the north to south, but Al-Qaeda's local wing is waging a campaign against Shias and the government to stoke sectarian confrontation.
Iraqis will vote on Saturday for members of provincial councils in a ballot that is seen as a test of political stability.
The ballot for nearly 450 provincial council seats will also be an important measure of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's political muscle against his rivals before a parliamentary election in 2014.
A dozen candidates have already been killed so far in campaigning, including two moderate Sunni politicians over the weekend.
Monday's attacks were mostly car bombs, including two blasts that killed two passengers at an outer checkpoint as they were on their way into the Baghdad airport site. Attacks on the heavily guarded airport and the fortified International Zone housing many embassies are rare.
“Two vehicles managed to reach the entrance of Baghdad airport and were left parked there. While we were doing routine searches, the two cars exploded seconds apart. Two passengers travelling to the airport were killed,” a police source said.
The most deadly attack was in Tuz Khurmato, 170 km (105 miles) north of Baghdad, where four bombs targeting police patrols killed five people and wounded 67, officials said.
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