At least 23 people were killed on Sunday when a suicide bomber devastated a busy kebab restaurant near Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, as violence claimed dozens of lives across central and western Iraq. It was the bloodiest day in Baghdad since the launch four weeks ago of an anti-insurgent sweep dubbed Operation Lightning, and came as US and Iraqi forces hammered insurgents near the Syrian border.
A man strapped with explosives entered the Zanbour restaurant and blew himself up as dozens of policemen from a nearby station and others were having lunch, witnesses said.
At least 23 people, many of them policemen, were killed and 36 wounded, the interior ministry added.
"This is a crime, is this something God would condone?" a soldier screamed at the scene as tense comrades fired in the air to force people back.
The bomber's severed head lay on the sidewalk, with legs sticking out on either side and blood splattered on the white tile walls of the restaurant, which was reduced to a heap of twisted metal and shards of crockery.
Minutes after the attack dozens of Iraqi police vehicles filled with commandos from the interior ministry descended on the scene as ambulances evacuated the dead and wounded.
A main entrance to the fortress-like Green Zone, home to the Iraqi government and US military and diplomatic personnel, was sealed off as US helicopters patrolled overhead and armoured vehicles stood watch outside.
Prior to the attack, lawmakers had been meeting in the Green Zone, and had heard the new Kurdistan regional president Massoud Barzani deliver a speech defending Kurdish demands for a federal Iraq that would grant their autonomous provinces the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
In another attack against police in Baghdad, four Iraqis were killed and 26 wounded when a car bomb exploded in the path of a patrol near a Shia mosque, according to the interior ministry.
And five Iraqi soldiers were killed and 13 wounded when a suicide car bomber blew himself up at the gates of a former Saddam palace in his hometown of Tikrit, north of Baghdad, now a US military base.
Meanwhile, about 1,000 US marines and Iraqi soldiers backed by US and British warplanes pressed the third day of an offensive dubbed Operation Spear against insurgents in the town of Karaballa near the Syrian border.
Warplanes attacked suspected insurgent-occupied vehicles and buildings with laser-guided bombs and missiles, and the US military said at least 53 insurgents and one US marine had been killed, and 10 civilians wounded.
In another effort to restrict insurgent movement in the restive Al-Anbar province, a second US-Iraqi 1,000-troop force concentrated on an area around Lake Tharthar, north-west of Baghdad, as part of Operation Dagger.
Southwest of Fallujah, "15 gunmen were killed during the course of the days operations", and 24 detained, a separate US statement said.
Iraqi lawmakers from across the political spectrum called for the withdrawal of roughly 160,000 foreign forces in a letter released to the media on Sunday, with some urging that a detailed timetable be set.
"It is dangerous that the Iraqi government has asked the UN Security Council to prolong the stay of occupation forces without consulting representatives of the people, who have the mandate for such a decision," said a letter signed by 83 of the 275-member parliament.
On Friday, Bush is to receive Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari for his first visit to the White House to trumpet progress since Iraq's January 30 elections.
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