Iraq's prime minister today announced a major crackdown on both Shia militias and Sunni insurgents in Baghdad to stem the rise of killings that are now running at hundreds a week.
Nuri al-Maliki, who has been under pressure from Washington to stamp out death squad killings and ethnic cleansing in the city that is blamed on militias loyal to fellow Shia leaders, said commanders in each neighbourhood would come down hard on illegal groups, "regardless of their sect or politics".
But there was no sign of the crackdown on the streets of the capital.
As US President George W. Bush shuffled his diplomatic and military leadership in Iraq and prepared a new strategy that many expect will involve thousands more American soldiers for Baghdad, Maliki said US troops would support Iraqi forces.
A US-drafted plan to clear Baghdad of militants, block-by-block, was launched in August but, after a brief initial success, the daily death tolls started to rise once again. Analysts have said time is running out to prevent an all-out sectarian civil war.
"We completely reject any interference from any political parties in this plan. There will be no refuge from this plan for anyone who is operating beyond the law, regardless of their sect or their political affiliation," Maliki said, adding that the plan would continue until its objectives had been achieved.
"We will come down hard on anyone who does not carry out their orders and who does their job according to his political or sectarian background. We will pursue those people under the law and punish them most severely," he said, in an Army Day address to troops at a parade ground built by Saddam Hussein.