Suspect arrested in 2006 Iraqi wedding attack

BAGHDAD – Iraqi security forces have arrested a Sunni insurgent who confessed to involvement in attacks that killed 70 people, including nearly two dozen at a wedding in 2006, a senior Iraqi intelligence officer said Saturday.

The suspect is accused of heading a terrorist cell in northern Baghdad and was picked up earlier this month with four other men during a security raid.

In the wedding attack, a suicide bomber drove an explosives-rigged car into a crowd outside the bride's home, killing 23 people.

The intelligence official did not immediately know if the Baghdad cell was linked to al-Qaida. He spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

Meanwhile, Iraqi state TV reported that 13 people were killed when a bus traveling through southern Iraq crashed in the city of Diwaniyah late Friday night.

An Iraqi official in Diwaniyah, 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Baghdad, said the bus was carrying Shiite pilgrims from the holy city of Najaf when it crashed into a piece of farm machinery.

He said most of the dead were women and children. Iraqi state TV put the number of dead at 13 but the official said a total of 14 were killed after one patient died at the hospital.

The police official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Hundreds of thousands of religious pilgrims come to Iraq from around the world to visit the holy Shiite Islamic sites.