Iraq Press Roundup

Al Mada newspaper reported Friday on the arrest of 14 wanted figures who were disguised as women in Diyala.

In details, the paper said Baqouba police announced the arrest of the 14 wanted men said to be members of al-Qaida.

"They were all disguised in women’s clothes," the report said.

A police official told the paper "a group of people were riding a bus. It was stopped for search at a checkpoint. The riders turned nervous, which made the police suspect them. After they were asked to present identification cards, we noticed they were from another district that has been the focus of raids.”

Police said all those arrested were between the ages of 15 and 22 except for two who were in their 30s.

Azzaman newspaper reported Friday that during a meeting between Prime Minster Nouri al-Maliki and Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Maliki promised he would "flush out the Sadrists from … the holy shrines of Najaf and Karbala."

It quoted officials at Maliki’s Dawa party.

Dawa party members said "flushing out … (Moqtada Sadr’s) gunmen will be similar to the de-Baathification process.”

Kul Al Iraq newspaper reported on an explosion in Sadr city Thursday killing 11 people and wounding 23.

"The explosion happened in a public bus garage in Sadr city, east of Baghdad," the paper said.

The paper quoted police sources as saying the explosion "was a result of a bomb that was left in the garage."

"Other sources" the paper reported, "said the bomb was attached to a motorcycle and was to explode when a U.S. military convoy passed. The bomb didn't explode in time.”