Bombs killed nine people in Baghdad and gunmen shot dead five butchers in Mosul today, as US President George W. Bush warned that killing al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq would not end violence.
Mr Bush said US and Iraqi forces will capitalise on the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi by cracking down on insurgents trying to regroup after losing their leader, blamed for some of Iraq's bloodiest attacks since the US invasion in 2003.
"Coalition and Iraqi forces are seizing this moment to strike the enemies of freedom in Iraq at this time of uncertainty for their cause," he said in a weekly radio address.
But Mr Bush, signalling that the United States was not ready to start scaling back its military presence of 130,000 troops despite Wednesday's killing of the Jordanian militant, also warned that violence may get worse in coming weeks.
"Zarqawi is dead, but the difficult and necessary mission in Iraq continues," he said. "In the weeks ahead, violence in Iraq may escalate. The terrorists and insurgents will seek to prove that they can carry on without Zarqawi," Mr Bush said.
Zarqawi, a Sunni Muslim who had a $25 million bounty on his head, was blamed for a series of attacks on Iraq's Shia Muslim majority igniting a wave of reprisals that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war.
His followers have vowed to carry on with the violent campaign after his death in a US air raid north of Baghdad.