10 dead as twin suicide bombs rock Iraq ahead of Wednesday's vote

Twin suicide bombings rocked a town in northeast of Baghdad on Tuesday morning, killing at least 10 people and wounding 20 more, according to security and medical personnel.

AFP reported that the bombs went off in a market in Saadiyah around 10 am local time (8am GMT). The attack comes after 57 people were killed Monday in a wave of attacks across the country.

A neighbouring town, Khanaqin, also saw attacks with 30 people killed and at least 50 injured at political rally. Residents had gathered in the largely Kurdish town to watch Kurdish regional President Jalal Talabani cast his ballot from Germany, where he is receiving medical treatment for a recent stroke.

Attacks also took place in the capital with one bomb in western Baghdad killing seven policemen and another attack northern Baghdad killing an additional five. Further violence elsewhere in the country killed 15 more security personnel. Overall, some 120 are believed to have been injured accross the country. 

Iraq is scheduled to go to hold nationwide elections on Wednesday, with the country of 32 million going to the polls for the first time since US troops completed their withdrawal in 2011.  

More than 20 million are eligible to cast their ballots,  but fears are growing that Iraq is slipping back into a pattern of sectarian bloodletting that plagued the country following the 2003 US invasion.

The unrest is the latest in a months-long surge in violence that has claimed nearly 3,000 lives already this year, while anti-government fighters have held the town of Fallujah, a short drive from Baghdad, since the beginning of the year.