Following are security and other developments in Iraq reported on Wednesday, as of 1645 GMT:

BAGHDAD — A bomb in Baghdad’s central Shorja market killed 24 people and wounded 35, police and Interior Ministry sources said.

HILLA — A bomb targeting a crowd of men outside an army recruitment office killed 12 people and wounded 38. Hilla police spokesman Captain Muthanna al-Mamuri said the bomb was left on a parked bicycle.

DIWANIYA — Gunmen “executed” 13 Iraqi soldiers after their ammunition ran out during fierce clashes in the town of Diwaniya, south of Baghdad, on Monday, Iraq’s defence minister said.

KIRKUK — An explosion inside a bus killed three people and wounded 11 in the northern city of Kirkuk, including a man who had left the bomb inside the vehicle but failed to make a swift exit, police and witnesses said.

BADRA — Two border guards, including a captain, were killed in Badra, a town east of Baghdad near the Iranian border, after their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, border guards said.

BUHRIZ — A roadside bomb killed five members of one family, including three women and a child, and seriously wounded another woman and child as they travelled in their car near the town of Buhriz, 60 km (36 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD — Gunmen killed Nadia Mohammed, a director general at the Justice Ministry, along with her driver and two guards in western Baghdad’s Nafaq al-Shurta area, a hospital source said.

SUWAYRA — Iraqi police said they recovered four bodies, blindfolded and hands bound, with signs of torture from the river Tigris in the town of Suwayra, south of Baghdad.

NUMANIYA — Gunmen killed three brothers in the Iraqi town of Numaniya, 120 km (72 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. The men were Shi’ites who had fled a Sunni region further north.

BAGHDAD — Two civilians were killed and 21 people wounded, including five policemen, when a car bomb exploded after police responded to a small bomb blast near a petrol station, police said.

SAMAWA — Clashes between Iraqi police and civilians killed one civilian and wounded nine people, including five police. Police said hundreds turned violent after they were turned away from an army recruitment centre and threw rocks at police, who fired at the crowd.

QAIM — Police in the western Iraqi town of Qaim said they had found the bodies of two civilians with gunshot wounds to the head and torture marks.

NUMANIYA — Police said they found a body, bearing signs of torture, in a river near the town of Numaniya.

FALLUJA — The body of a civilian was found three days after he was kidnapped by militants in the former insurgent stronghold of Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, police said. The body bore signs of torture.

BASRA — British troops searching for a senior militia leader arrested five people in Iraq’s southern second city of Basra, the British military said.

MOSUL — Clashes between Iraqi police and insurgents wounded four civilian bystanders in the northern city of Mosul, police said.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

BAGHDAD — The top American general in Iraq said on Wednesday he foresaw Iraqi forces assuming control of the country’s security within 12 to 18 months with “very little” support from U.S.-led forces.