( CNN ) -- At least 13 people were killed in explosions and shootings in three of Iraq 's most strategic cities on Monday , police officials said . The deadliest incident was in the southeastern part of Mosul , where a car bomb exploded by Iraqi army convoy . Five people were killed , including two Iraqi soldiers , in the neighborhood of al-Muharbeen . In the eastern part of Mosul , three people were shot dead by gunmen in two separate shootings . Mosul , which is in Nineveh province , has a largely Sunni population and is about 420 kilometers ( about 261 miles ) north of Baghdad . And in the capital of Baghdad , a man and his son were shot dead by gunmen in the al-Jaara neighborhood in the southern part of the city . In the oil-rich city of Kirkuk , gunmen attacked a group of men in a shooting area in al-Naser in eastern Kirkuk and killed three people . Four other people were wounded . Kirkuk is an ethnically mixed city of Arabs , Kurds and Turkmen and is about 240 kilometers ( about 149 miles ) north of Baghdad . Casualties mount at alarming rate in Iraq . Monday 's attacks come as Iraqi security forces are conducting a large-scale operation , `` The Revenge for the Martyrs , '' which is attempting to track down al Qaeda members in and around Baghdad . The operation started few days ago , and so far , hundreds of people have been arrested , according to the Baghdad Operation military command website . An al Qaeda group claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks in July on two Iraqi prisons that a lawmaker said freed more than 500 inmates , including some senior members of the militant group . July was the deadliest month in Iraq since the peak of sectarian violence in 2006 and 2007 . According to figures released by the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq , 1,057 Iraqis were killed and another 2,326 were wounded in acts of terrorism and violence in July . Global Public Square : What Iraq could teach us about Syria .
Mosul , Kirkuk and the capital of Baghdad are all the scenes of deadly violence on Monday . The militants have been fighting for control of Mosul, Iraq's second city, since last week. Iraqi security forces are conducting a large-scale operation against al Qaeda .