Another 1,395 people were also wounded through to July 23, according to AFP figures based on reports from security and medical sources.

The second-deadliest month of the year so far has been May, when 614 people died in attacks and 1,550 were wounded. More than 2,800 people have been killed so far in 2013.

Much of the violence on Tuesday was centered in northern Iraq.

In Nineveh province, four kidnapped police were found shot dead, and gunmen also killed a prison guard and a barber.

Kirkuk province was also hit by attacks that killed two Sahwa anti-Al-Qaeda militiamen and a Kurdish security forces member, and wounded a policeman.

And a bombing killed one person and wounded another near Baquba, also north of Baghdad, while gunmen killed two police and wounded five in an attack on a checkpoint near Baiji.

The violence came as Al-Qaeda front group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed brazen assaults on two prisons in Iraq that killed over 40 people and saw hundreds of inmates, including senior militants, escape.

Iraq has faced years of attacks by militants. More than 450 people have been killed each month from April.

In addition to security problems, the government in Baghdad is also failing to provide adequate basic services such as electricity and clean water, and corruption is widespread.

NJF/NJF