In Iraq, five explosions in and around Baghdad killed at least 12 people and wounded 27 others. The blast came yesterday in Arab al-Jabour, an area of date palm groves on Baghdad's southern outskirts, when an improvised explosive device went off near a vehicle, killing four civilians. Another bomb in a local marketplace in Taji, a northern suburb that hosts a large military base, killed three people and wounded nine. While a suicide bomber in the central Allawi district of Baghdad detonated his explosives vest, killing two and wounded eight.<br/><br/>