Baghdad, Saladin rocked by bombings; 17 killed

By Ibrahim Saleh

BAGHDAD (AA) – A total of 17 people were killed on Saturday by a suicide bombing in a public market in Iraq’s northern Saladin province and four separate bombings in capital Baghdad, according to local police sources.

Muhannad al-Samarrai, a police colonel in Saladin, told Anadolu Agency that the casualty toll from the market bombing -- which occurred in Saladin’s Dujail district some 120 kilometers south of provincial capital Tikrit -- stood at 10 dead and 21 injured.

Dujail is a majority-Shia district, where former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein survived an assassination attempt in the 1980s.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, Police Brigadier-General Nazim al-Zamili said seven people had been killed the same day when four explosive devices went off in different parts of the capital.

He told Anadolu Agency that 22 people had also been injured by the bombings, which occurred in Baghdad’s Al-Wihda, Al-Madain, Al-Nahraon and Al-Tarmiya neighborhoods.

Al-Zamili said that the authorities had stepped up security across the capital after receiving intelligence about a plan by the Daesh terrorist group to carry out a number of suicide attacks in the area.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the four bombings in Baghdad and the market bombing in Saladin.

Iraqi authorities announced last Thursday that they had arrested several members of "terrorist cells" responsible for recent deadly attacks on civilian and military targets in Baghdad.

They did not elaborate further.

Ali Abo Rezig contributed to this report from Ankara