The Iraqi Army has taken over from US forces in a fifth section of the country today, bringing the amount of the country under their watch to 50 per cent, but violence still rages in the capital Baghdad where 19 people have been killed by roadside bombs.
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| Iraqi policemen inspect the site of a bomb blast, in Baghdad, Iraq today. |
US Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Iraqi division took primary control of an area that includes the cities of Tikrit and Kirkuk, north of Baghdad. There were two
two people shot dead in Kirkuk this morning.
While calling the transfer of control "a milestone," Whitman noted the daunting security challenges still facing military forces in some of Iraq's major population centers, notably the capital, where there were further deaths today.
Four separate roadside bomb attacks killed at least 19 people in Baghdad as US troops made new efforts to try to rid the capital of militant militias.
The deadliest bombing killed at least 10 people and wounded 69 in the al-Shorja market in central Baghdad.
Earlier, two blasts targeting police and another aimed at one of Baghdad's busiest bus stations killed a total of nine people and injured eight, police said.
Elsewhere, gunmen killed two employees of a private company in a small town near the northern city of Kirkuk, and in Falluja gunmen killed a police lieutenant colonel and wounded his brother.
The United States has boosted its troop levels in Baghdad to try to stop insurgent and sectarian violence, which has raised fears of full-blown civil war, from escalating.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government has vowed to confront militias blamed for fanning tensions, but some of the armed groups have close ties to political parties, including ones in his own ruling Alliance.
The Shia Islamist spoke up against his US allies after US and Iraqi forces fought Shia militiamen in Baghdad during a raid on a suspected death squad yesterday.
"This operation is rejected and it was conducted without the agreement of the government, and it does not match the current national reconciliation environment in the country," Mr Maliki said last night.
Police sources said two people were killed and 18 wounded in the operation in Sadr City, a stronghold of radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters are part of Mr Maliki's ruling coalition.
Gunmen today stormed a bank in Baghdad's northern Adhamiya district and killed at least five people before walking away with the equivalent of $4,000.
The violence is killing about 100 people every day and sapping confidence in Iraq's new Shia-led government.