Iraq forces arrest militant as Sept. deaths top 200

Iraqi forces have arrested an insurgent allegedly involved in more than 30 attacks, a security spokesman said Thursday, as violence brought the number of people killed in Iraq this month to 201.

The insurgent, who was not identified by name, "admitted to carrying out more than 30 assassination and bombing operations," including setting off a car bomb in the Hurriyah area of the capital earlier this month, Baghdad Operations Command spokesman Colonel Dhia al-Wakil said in a statement.

A car bomb in Hurriyah killed three people and wounded 14 others on September 9, one of more than 30 attacks across Iraq that day.

Wakil said that further details will be released after the investigation is completed.

On Thursday, gunmen killed an employee of Al-Kindi hospital in the Shaab area of north Baghdad, while a bomb in Mahmudiyah, south of the capital, killed one person and wounded at least one more, interior ministry and medical sources said.

And a magnetic "sticky bomb" killed one person north of Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, a police lieutenant colonel and a doctor from Baquba General Hospital said.

With the latest violence, at least 201 people have been killed and 693 wounded in attacks so far this month, according to an AFP tally based on security and medical sources.