Bomb attacks in Baghdad have hit an all-time high, the US military said today, as one of the capital's frontline police units was pulled off the streets on suspicion of involvement with sectarian death squads.
Thousands of police face criminal vetting and lie detectors as part of a "retraining" process designed to weed out militia killers who have used the cover of their uniforms to kidnap, torture and commit mass murder, US officials have said.
The overnight orders to move the 8th National Police Brigade into barracks and arrest one of its commanders came a day after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki unveiled a sketchy deal with Sunni leaders and fellow Shias to try to stem violence. But there was still no sign of further talks to provide substance.
Fourteen people were killed and 75 wounded when a car bomb struck a government motorcade in Baghdad. Police said the industry minister, a Kurd, was in the motorcade but aides said no senior officials were in the convoy.
The blast in the Christian Karrada commercial area damaged buildings and left blood and mangled cars in the street.
US military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said the number of car bombs in Baghdad, both detonated and defused, hit their highest level of the year last week and that bombs reported in general were "also at an all-time high".
US and Iraqi forces have mounted a major military operation in the past two months against militants in Baghdad.
Four US soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Tuesday. Out of a heavy US death toll of 18 so far this month, 11 died around Baghdad.
Caldwell described it as a "hard week" for US forces, who number about 140,000 in Iraq.