By DPA,
Baghdad : At least two people were killed Monday and 11 wounded when a bomb went off in central Baghdad, while a fire broke out in a public market in the east of the Iraqi capital, media reports said.
The official channel al-Iraqiya reported that a bomb went off in Baghdad’s Tayran area, killing at least two people and injuring 11.
Tayran is among the most crowded areas in the Iraqi capital, with many stores and meeting points for workers.
In another incident in Baghdad, witnesses told DPA that a massive fire broke out in one of Baghdad’s public markets.
No casualties have been reported from the fire, which witnesses said was not caused by a bomb.
However, al-Jazeera news channel reported that clashes led to the fire that destroyed stores in Baghdad’s Jadeeda district
Ambulances and fire service vans rushed to the blast scene.
In other news, an official statement from Baghdad said that Iraqi forces killed three militants and detained another 14 as part of the security offensive launched by the government.
Forces also foiled 16 explosion attempts, the statement said.
Separately, Iraqi’s Interior Ministry executed 28 criminals and militant cult members in the city of Basra, some 550 km south of Baghdad, Abdul-Karim Khalaf, department chief in the ministry, told the Iraqi al-Sabah newspaper.
He said the ministry Sunday carried out the 28 executions issued by Iraq’s Central Criminal Court.
Iraqi officials told DPA that the executed criminals included militants from a Shiite cult known as Jund al-Samaa. Members of the group are followers of Ahmed al-Yamani, who believes in the return of a hidden imam.
A deadly confrontation in January between Iraqi security forces and al-Yamani’s followers in Basra left at least 40 people dead and 60 injured. Some 300 people were also arrested.