BAGHDAD: A series of attacks targeting public places killed 12 people in Baghdad on Saturday, said Iraqi authorities, as the prime minister announced the arrest of an aide to Saddam Hussein.

Police officials said a car bomb went off on Saturday near shops selling car parts in southeastern Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 13 others.

Another bomb blast at an outdoor market killed three shoppers and wounded eight in the city’s eastern suburbs.

Also, police said a bomb exploded near a row of shops in the capital’s western neighbourhood of Baiyaa, killing two and wounding 10.

Later on, a bomb blast near a vegetable and fruit wholesale market in southern Baghdad killed two people and wounded three others.

Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on Saturday that security forces arrested Abdel Baqi al-Sadun, a senior official in the disbanded Baath Party.

Al-Sadun has been at large since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime following the US-led invasion in 2003.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2015

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