By DPA
Baghdad : At least nine Iraqis were killed and 17 wounded in a terrorist attack here while 87 suspected militants were detained in a mop up operation in Kirkuk city, 250 km northeast of the capital, media sources reported Thursday.
In central Baghdad, a car bomb detonated Thursday morning in Rusafai square near a crowded wholesale market and a bus station, killing the nine and injuring 17, according to pan-Arab al-Arabiya news broadcast.
Police forces sealed off the area, preventing civilians from coming close to the explosion site while the wounded were rushed to nearby hospitals, the independent Voices of Iraq news agency reported citing police sources.
Meanwhile, a joint Iraqi army and police patrol staged a raid in Senaa neighbourhood in southern Kirkuk at dawn Thursday, arresting 87 gunmen, Voices of Iraq reported.
The forces also confiscated 40 Kalashnikovs and three vehicles, the source added.
Kirkuk lies 250 km north-east of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
On Wednesday evening, four people including a child were killed in an explosion in a Kurdish district of the northern Iraqi town of Mosul.
In the Kurdish Autonomous Region of northern Iraq, recovery operations continued Thursday among the rubble of villages following suicide attacks Tuesday evening that resulted in the deaths of more than 500 people.
The Kurdish regional government also approved a plan to speed up the integration of Kurdish areas to the south of the current autonomous region Wednesday.