Iraqi and US troops pressed closer to a long-announced battle against sectarian carnage in Baghdad that has pushed Iraq toward civil war, as at least 47 people died in another surge of brutality on Monday. Police also found 25 corpses.
The fresh bloodshed came in the wake of nearly 200 deaths over the weekend, mostly in the war-torn capital. Iraqi forces cranked up security on Monday in some volatile Baghdad districts on the eastern side of the Tigris River, an AFP photographer reported.
Iraqi soldiers and National Guard policemen were stationed on the capital's main eastern highway leading to Sadr City, a repeated target of insurgents, he said. Tanks, armoured vehicles and National Guard police manned various locations on the road to Sadr City and in some other districts.
New control points were also established in the districts of Karrada, Rusafa, Mustansiriyah, Adhamiyah, all to the east of the Tigris. On some bridges, tanks protected soldiers as they checked cars. Access to Sadr City itself was controlled by soldiers and police commandos. It was not clear if the new measures were part of the long-trumpeted offensive to stabilise Baghdad.
A senior Iraqi official, on condition of anonymity, said the security plan would be launched "in the next few days" after "necessary security preparations have been completed". While the US military declined to be specific, officials in Washington defended the pace of the US deployment.
Insurgents, meanwhile, launched brutal attacks killing at least 47 people around Iraq. A suicide bomber blew up his truck near a petrol station in Baghdad's Al-Saidiyah district, killing 10 people and wounding 60, a security official said.
The truck loaded with wheat and a bomb exploded next to people lining up to buy petrol, while a car bomb blew up near a children's hospital in Al-Sinaa, eastern Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 14.
Thirty-three more died in other attacks, including several near the violent city of Baquba, in Diyala province, and in the northern city of Mosul. Police also found 25 corpses of people killed execution style in Baghdad. On Monday, the US and British militaries announced the deaths of two US and one British soldier. The US also said it had killed a "rogue" leader of a feared Shia militia during a raid in Diyala province, on Sunday.