Attacks in and around the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, including seven car bombs that ripped through multiple neighbourhoods, have killed at least 23 people, security and medical officials have said.

Eight people were killed in two separate car bombs on Monday - one of which was detonated by a suicide attacker - in the town of Mahmudiyah, just south of the capital, while five others were killed by vehicles rigged with explosives in the Baghdad neighbourhoods of Baladiyat and Hurriyah. The number of injured from the Monday morning explosions is at least 41.

A further three explosions - one in Sadr City and two in Abu Disheer - on Monday evening killed 10 people and injured 20.

In western Baghdad, also on Monday, police found the bodies of three men and one woman who were all killed by gunshots to the head, officials said.

The violence comes amid a long-running surge in bloodshed that left more than 1,000 people dead last month, the highest such figure since April 2008, according to government data.

Adding to the insecurity in the country, Iraqi forces have been waging gunbattles with armed fighters in Anbar province, to the west of Baghdad, where for weeks, parts of Fallujah and Ramadi have been outside of government control.

Soldiers, policemen and tribal fighters have pressed an assault on Ramadi, capital of Anbar, in a bid to wrest back control of neighbourhoods, and officials have said an incursion into Fallujah is imminent.

A Ministry of Defence statement issued on Monday said Iraqi armed forces had killed 57 fighters in the Malaan and Hamirah districts, to the south west of Ramadi.

Al Jazeera