IRAQ: A car bomb killed 10 people and wounded 21 near a vegetable market in Baghdad yesterday, Iraqi police said, as insurgents kept up a campaign of bombings despite a security crackdown backed by US reinforcements.
The US is sending 21,500 extra troops to Iraq, mostly to Baghdad, where Iraqi and US patrols and security outposts have been stepped up in a bid to halt sectarian violence.
In the latest bomb attack on Wednesday, police said a car bomb exploded on a commercial street in the Bayaa neighbourhood of the Iraqi capital, killing 10 people.
US military spokesman Rear Admiral Mark Fox said yesterday there were "encouraging signs" in the security plan, notably a decrease in sectarian death squad abductions and killings, but bombings were still a problem.
"We're very early in the process," he told reporters.
Washington accuses Iran and Syria of fuelling the violence in Iraq and has until now spurned suggestions that recommended reaching out to both to try to stabilise Iraq. - (Reuters)