By DPA
Baghdad : At least three civilians were killed and nine, including three women, were wounded when an explosive charge went off south of Baghdad Saturdays, media reports said.
The explosion occurred on a main road in Hillah, 100 km south of Baghdad, as a commuter bus passed, according to Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency. Nearby vehicles suffered considerable damage.
More details were not immediately known.
Meanwhile in Baghdad, the building of a newspaper known to be the mouthpiece of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s movement was allegedly set on fire by unknown attackers Saturday morning, the head of the newspaper’s board of directors told VOI.
Branding the blaze as arson, board head Fattah al-Sheikh pointed out that a neighbouring bank and block of flats were not set on fire or vandalized.
The daily Ishraqat al-Sadr newspaper is issued by the so-called Ishraqat al-Sadr Institution for Journalism and Media and is located in eastern Baghdad, close to one of the main entrances of the Shia enclave known as Sadr City.
The paper has a high Shia readership, and according to VOI, in its last issue called for the release of all Sadr-affiliated detainees from Iraqi and US-administered prisons.
In another development, sources told VOI that police in Babil province arrested Saturday a man suspected of slaughtering 150 people in the area of Bu Olwan, 10 km north of Hillah.
Raed al-Olwani, who was wanted by the police for a year, was nicknamed “the serial killer of Bu Olwan”.
Separately, joint Iraqi and US forces captured 13 wanted militants – including several Al Qaeda in Iraq leaders – during operations in Baquba, 60 km north of Baghdad, authorities said.
The police discovered three corpses. One of the bodies was of a security man while the other two remain unidentified. The bodies bore signs of torture.