BAGHDAD, Iraq - A series of
bombings and shootings killed at least 33 people Tuesday, most in the Baghdad
area, as more American soldiers patrolled the streets of the capital in a
make-or-break bid to quell sectarian violence.
Nearly 60 people were wounded in the blasts, police said. The explosions
began when three bombs went off simultaneously near the Interior Ministry in
central Baghdad, killing 10 people and wounding eight, police Lt. Bilal Ali
Majid said.
Two more bombs ripped through the main Shurja market, also in central
Baghdad, killing 10 more civilians and wounding 50, police Lt. Mohammed Kheyoun
said.
At least 13 other people were killed or found dead Tuesday, most in the
Baghdad area, where tension between Sunnis and Shiites runs the highest.
The violence underscores the security crisis facing Baghdad, which prompted
American commanders to send more U.S. soldiers to the capital in a renewed bid
to curb sectarian killings and kidnappings.
U.S. officials said the latest phase of the security operation was launched
Monday "to reduce the level of murders, kidnappings, assassinations, terrorism
and sectarian violence in the city and to reinforce the Iraqi government's
control of Baghdad."
A U.S. statement said about 6,000 additional Iraqi troops were being sent to
the Baghdad area, along with 3,500 U.S. soldiers of the 172nd Stryker Brigade
Combat Team and 2,000 troops from the U.S. 1st Armored Division, which has
served as the theater reserve force since November.
"Iraqi and Multinational Division-Baghdad soldiers will not fail the Iraqi
people," said Maj. Gen. J.D. Thurman, commander of U.S. forces in the capital.
American officials have released few details of the new campaign, citing
security. However, more heavily armed U.S. soldiers were seen Tuesday on the
streets of Ghazaliyah, one of the neighborhoods targeted in the first stage of
the stabilization effort.
Troops were seen patrolling both in vehicles and on foot, hoping to assure
residents of the majority Sunni neighborhood they will be protected from
criminals and sectarian death squads.
"The general priorities are to bring stability to the key neighborhoods where
there is sectarian fighting," the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George W.
Casey Jr., told reporters in Tikrit. "You'll see us starting there and then
gradually expanding across the rest of the city."
Much of the violence has been blamed on sectarian militias that have stepped
up a campaign of tit-for-tat killings since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite
shrine in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.
Many militias are linked to political parties that are part of Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki's national unity government, and they are reluctant to disband
their armed wings unless others do the same.
The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said there was talk under way
among Sunni and Shiite groups to reach agreements and sign pledges to end
sectarian fighting.