BAGHDAD — A series of attacks in Baghdad and other cities across Iraq on Monday struck police and army checkpoints, as well as markets, a mayor’s office and a textile factory. The violence appeared to be a coordinated rebuttal of assertions by Iraqi and American commanders that Al Qaeda in Iraq and other extremist groups had suffered debilitating blows in recent weeks.

The attacks, which killed at least 101 people and wounded hundreds more, occurred amid a protracted dispute over the results of the country’s election more than two months ago. Even as the violence continued to unfold across the country through the day, officials blamed the political impasse for creating a security vacuum that extremists hoped to exploit.

One of Iraq’s two vice presidents, Adel Abdul Mahdi, called for speeding the formation of a new government to prevent “any attempt by terrorist gangs to use the circumstances in the country to hurt the Iraqi people and the armed forces.”

A member of the departing Parliament’s security committee, Bahaa al-Araji, pointedly blamed the security forces for unclear loyalties and for “the arrogance” of the generals because of improved security that, he emphasized, the American military had achieved and Iraq’s military was squandering.