Iraqi security forces arrested 18 people suspected of involvement in recent outbreaks of crime and violence in central Iraq, a police chief in the city of Kut said Tuesday, DPA reported.
Six of those arrested were part of a robbery gang, while the other 12 are believed to be members of the al-Qaeda network, General Hussein Abdul-Hady told dpa.
Kut is a Shiite-dominated city located around 180 kilometrees south-east of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, in the Sunni-dominated city of Tikrit, one person was killed and a policeman injured in two separate attacks.
A series of bombings across Iraq on Monday killed around 25 people. The attacks mostly targeted Shiite-dominated areas ahead of Thursday's Arbaeen pilgrimage, a major religious ritual.
Each year millions of Shiites make the pilgrimage to the southern city of Karbala to commemorate the day 40 days after the slaying of Imam Hussein bin Ali, the grandson of the Muslim prophet Mohammed.
The annual festival has been the target of deadly attacks blamed on al-Qaeda and radical insurgents in recent years.