Baghdad death squads kill 60, bombs kill 22

BAGHDAD - Police recovered 60 bodies over the past day across Baghdad, most bound and tortured, officials said today, highlighting how sectarian death squads are still plaguing the Iraqi capital despite a major security drive.

Two car bombs targeting police killed 22 people in the morning and wounded another 76 people. The first killed 14 outside Baghdad's traffic police headquarters, a second targeted guards at an electricity station in the east of the city.

At the White House, where US President George W. Bush has been defending his invasion of Iraq ahead of congressional elections, a spokeswoman said: "The violence is horrible ... We are working closely with the Iraqi government in order to turn the tide."

US and Iraqi leaders say the biggest threat to Iraq no longer comes from the three-year-old revolt among ousted President Saddam Hussein's fellow Sunni Muslims but from the bloodshed between Sunnis and the Shi'ite majority now in power.

Parliamentary leaders met and failed to break deadlock over the issue of "federalism" - Shi'ites want sweeping autonomy for their oil-rich southern provinces to match that of ethnic Kurds in the north. Sunnis want the constitution amended to strengthen the Baghdad government. Some fear civil war could result.

The deaths of two more US soldiers were confirmed, one in Anbar province, where the commander denied suggestions his force had lost control to al Qaeda and other Sunni insurgents but said stabilising the western desert region would be a job for Iraqi politicians and their US-trained troops and police.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran. Iran's Shi'ite Islamist leaders have pledged support, drawing a wary response from Washington which accused Tehran of funding militants in Iraq.

Khamenei called on the 145,000 US troops to leave immediately: "Most problems in Iraq will be removed with the departure of the occupiers," state media quoted him as saying.

Maliki, too, says he wants the Americans gone, but not until Iraqi forces are capable of handling the violence they face.

An Interior Ministry official and sources at Baghdad police headquarters said a total of 60 unidentified bodies were found, freshly killed, in various parts of Baghdad over the past day.

Four others, one a woman, were fished out of the Tigris river just south of the capital - another daily occurrence.

The tally was among the highest of late, despite a month-old security crackdown by reinforced US and Iraqi troops.

"But we've had worse days," the Interior Ministry official said. "Sometimes we sent 65 or even 100 to the morgue."

Fifteen bodies were found scattered, some in roadside garbage heaps, close to the Shi'ite militia stronghold of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, he said. In the southern district of Saidiya, the bloodied remains of five bakers were discovered.

Most of the dead were bound and shot in the head and many bore signs of torture, the official said - marks of sectarian death squads as well as of criminal kidnap gangs.

The United Nations estimated two months ago that about 100 people a day were being killed in a covert sectarian dirty war.

US commanders say more troops on the streets, sweeping through violent neighbourhoods, reduced the "murder rate" by more than 40 per cent in August. That figure included individual shootings but not bigger attacks such as bombings.

Last week, the UN office in Baghdad said the number of unidentified bodies taken to the city morgue in August fell by about 17 per cent from the record month of July, to 1536.

The Health Ministry has yet to publish its full data for August. In July it said over 3000 civilians died violently.

Kidnappings for ransom are common, sometimes with political overtones. One group issued a video showing a Turkish hostage pleading for his life. His captors said they would kill Yildirim Tek in 72 hours if his building firm did not leave Iraq.

The bloodshed has made tens of thousands flee areas where they are in a minority, hardening a divide along the Tigris between mainly Sunni west Baghdad and the mostly Shi'ite east.

Parliament's Sunni speaker met leaders of major blocs to try to break deadlock over proposed legislation ahead of a looming constitutional deadline. Further talks were set for Saturday.

Deputy speaker Khaled al-Attiya, a Shi'ite, told Reuters there was little progress, with Shi'ites insisting parliament debate a bill on rules for federal autonomy next Tuesday and Sunnis, who have a fifth of the seats, threatening to boycott.

At Saddam's trial for genocide against the Kurds in 1988 the prosecution asked the judge to resign for being too lenient in letting the defendants make speeches and intimidating comments to witnesses. The judge refused.

- REUTERS