IRAQ:Two car bombs tore through a packed shopping area of a mainly Shia district of Baghdad yesterday, killing 60 people in the worst attack since US and Iraqi troops launched a crackdown in the city five days ago.
Prime minister Nuri al-Maliki had on Friday trumpeted what he called the "brilliant success" of Operation Imposing Law in quelling sectarian violence.
US generals, mindful of a similar crackdown last year that failed, have been more cautious, and warned that any downturn in violence might be temporary as militants adapt their tactics to meet the new strategy.
The two car bombs exploded in quick succession near a busy, pedestrianised market area of New Baghdad, a mainly Shia district in the east of the city, killing 60 people and wounding 131.
A Reuters photographer reported seeing seven or eight bodies lying in the street after the two blasts, which he said were about 10 seconds and 100 metres apart.
"I saw a man about 50 years old. He was carrying a dead boy who looked about 10. He was holding him by one arm and one leg and screaming," he said.
A man wearing a business suit lay dead next to a black Mercedes, a piece of shrapnel sticking out of his head.
British forces, meanwhile, clashed with gunmen in a Mahdi army stronghold in the southern city of Basra yesterday, killing at least three gunmen. The battle erupted during a crackdown by 3,000 Iraqi and British troops on violence by criminal gangs and feuding Shia militias.
Speaking on television yesterday, British prime minister Tony Blair said an operation to put Iraqi forces in control of security in Basra was now complete.
The US military has said it will take several months to know whether its current crackdown on sectarian murders has been successful. But analysts say it will still be extremely difficult to prevent car bombs, the favoured weapon of Sunni insurgents.
Earlier yesterday, police had reported finding just five bodies shot, tortured and dumped in Baghdad on Saturday, a dramatic drop from the 40 to 50 they typically report each day.
US vice-president Dick Cheney, it has been announced, is to fly to Asia today to reassure allies Japan and Australia that the current troop build-up in Iraq will help quell the violence. Mr Cheney will brief Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and Australian prime minister John Howard about the decision to send an extra 21,500 troops.
Mr Abe was elected in September to succeed Junichiro Koizumi and is committed, like his predecessor, to strong defence ties with the US. Mr Howard, who faces elections later this year, was sharply criticised by opposition leader Kevin Rudd for a comment about US presidential aspirant Senator Barack Obama.
Mr Rudd accused Mr Howard of meddling after the prime minister said Mr Obama's plan to withdraw US troops from Iraq by March 2008 would encourage terrorist groups.