U.S. military officials announced Monday that they had stepped up a campaign against death squads operating in the Iraqi capital, launching 19 raids as sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites left dozens dead and wounded throughout the country.
In the western Iraqi province of Anbar, two U.S. soldiers assigned to the 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division died in combat, and the mayor of the provincial capital was assassinated.
Although the military released no more details about the soldiers’ deaths, a witness reported that a roadside bomb had exploded near a Humvee about 5 p.m. Monday, apparently killing the troops.
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the top military spokesman in Baghdad, said Monday that the 19 raids were part of an effort to control the violence that has engulfed Baghdad in recent weeks. “Over the last week, we have intensified … our efforts against death squads,” he said.
The military said it had captured eight cell leaders and 37 cell members.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, made his first official visit to Britain since his government was formed in May.
Al-Maliki was scheduled to travel next to Washington for a meeting with President Bush on Tuesday.
In violence Monday, four civilians were killed during a clash between a U.S. military patrol and gunmen, Ramadi police Lt. Muhammed Shibeeb said.
Violence has intensified in Ramadi in the past two days, killing five policemen and the mayor, Shibeeb said.
On Sunday night, Mayor Muhamed Ahmed Al-Dulami was killed about 9 p.m. by gunmen, according to a witness. Three policemen were also killed in the attack.
On Monday, the city morgue in Kut, a mostly Shiite city southeast of Baghdad, reported receiving 19 bodies–blindfolded and some showing signs of torture, The Associated Press reported. They were believed to be victims of sectarian death squads, city officials said.
In Mosul, a suicide car bomb exploded, killing five Iraqis and injuring four more.
A car bomb also exploded in Samarra, killing two people and injuring 11 others.
In Basra, British forces moved against members of al-Mahdi Army, detaining nine men and angering residents loyal to the cleric Moqtada Sadr, an official from Sadr’s Basra office said.
Also Monday, the most wanted Iraqi fugitive claimed in an interview that key elements of Saddam Hussein’s old army are now heading the insurgency, AP reported.
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Hussein’s top lieutenant with a $10 million bounty on his head, struck a defiant tone in an interview appearing on Time magazine’s Web site in which he answered questions sent in May through intermediaries, AP reported. Time said it wasn’t clear when his answers were written.
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Al-Douri, the highest-ranking figure from Hussein’s regime still at large and the “king of clubs” on the most wanted list, said Hussein blundered by having his army confront the U.S.-led invasion force instead of holding it in reserve to fight a guerrilla war, but he said the old army has bounced back.
Hussein’s trial resumed Monday for closing arguments, a day after the former Iraqi leader was hospitalized and fed with a tube during his hunger strike to demand better security for his lawyers, AP reported.