BAGHDAD: Iraqi forces have arrested Abd al-Baqi al-Saadun, one of the most senior officials from Saddam Hussein’s regime still at large, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Saturday. “The intelligence service was able to arrest the wanted man Abd al-Baqi al-Saadun,” Abadi announced in a televised speech. A senior intelligence officer said Saadun was arrested on Thursday “without resistance” in the northern province of Kirkuk following an operation that lasted more than a year. Saadun held various senior positions in Saddam’s Baath party, and the US military had previously said he was wanted for crimes against humanity committed during the suppression of a 1999 Shiite uprising. He was the five of diamonds in the US military deck of cards picturing the most-wanted officials from Saddam’s regime. Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, the most senior Baathist still at large, was said to have been killed earlier this year, but Iraq later admitted it lacked the necessary DNA results to confirm his identity. And an audio recording attributed to Duri was subsequently released that contained references to events after his supposed death.

Syria, Russia talks

MOSCOW: Syria’s foreign minister will meet his Russian counterpart in Moscow next week to discuss ways to resolve the conflict in Syria, Russia’s foreign ministry saidon Saturday. Syria’s ambassador to Russia told Interfax news agency that Damascus still depended on Russia for arms and technical assistance. Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov would discuss steps to renew the political process of resolving the Syrian conflict when they meet next week, the ministry said. It also reiterated Moscow’s call for direct dialogue between Damascus and opposition groups. Civil war in Syria since 2011 has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced millions, the United Nations says.

Bomb attacks kill four

BAGHDAD: Four people were killed in separate bomb attacks in Baghdad on Saturday, police and medics said. In the Obeidi district of eastern Baghdad a bomb exploded near a crowded market, killing two people. Another bomb went of near a crowded grocery market in the Doura district of southern Baghdad, the police and medics said. Iraq faces multiple security challenges, including Islamic State insurgents who control a third of the country and a sectarian civil war.