BAGHDAD, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- At least six people were wounded Sunday in a bomb blast in downtown Baghdad, while the police arrested head of a criminal gang in 's eastern province of Diyala, security source said.

The incident took place in the evening when a bomb detonated outside a massage center near Maysaloon Square in eastern Baghdad, wounding six people and damaging nearby buildings and shops, Captain Abdullah al-Hashimi from the Interior Ministry's operations office told Xinhua.

In a separate incident, Ali al-Daiyni, head of Diyala's provincial council, told Xinhua that a police force acted on intelligence reports and raided a safe house of a criminal gang and arrested their suspected leader, known as Amir (commander) of abduction.

The gang leader was wanted for involving in 38 kidnappings, murders, extortion and rape in various parts of the province, Daiyni said.

The incidents came despite dramatic decline in violent attacks in the country during the past few months, particularly after the Iraqi security forces dislodged the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants from all Iraqi areas.