US-led forces fought gunbattles today in an effort to crush militant hideouts in the heart of Baghdad as sectarian and insurgent activity claimed more lives it emerged today.
A day after President George W Bush told Congress that failure in Iraq was not an option, a total of 17 bodies were found, shot dead, in different districts of Baghdad on yesterday, police said.
One of them was a Sunni woman bank employee kidnapped on Monday and dumped at a mosque.
Academics continued to be targeted over the past 24 hours. Dhiyaa al-Mugoutir, a professor at Mustansiriya University was shot dead yesterday and gunmen today opened fire on the motorcade of Abd Dhiab al-Ajili, the minister of higher education. One of his guards was killed an another seriously wounded.
Gunmen also opened fire on a minibus carrying Shia pilgrims wounding two of them in the southern Saydiya district.
Outside the capital, an Iraqi translator working with US forces was shot dead yesterday in the city of Kut and three Iraqi soldiers are missing after clashes yesterday in the town of Suwayra. Six soldiers were wounded in the incident.
Two US Marines also died in combat in Anbar province, it was revealed today.
Mr Bush has said he is sending 21,500 more troops to Iraq, despite fierce opposition from Democrats who now control Congress, resistance within his own party and public scepticism.
Despite a recent increase in operations aides to Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the major security plan for Baghdad had not yet started.
US military spokesman Major Steven Lamb today confirmed an operation was under way to restore Iraqi security control to the mainly Sunni Arab area of Baghdad.
Maj Lamb said the operation involved US and local forces was within a mile of the Green Zone, the heavily fortified compound housing Iraq's government.
He said seven people had been detained. The Iraqi Defence Ministry said two terrorists had been killed and 11 suspects of varying nationalities detained.
The US military said in a statement today the mission was "not an operation designed solely to target Sunni insurgents, but rather aimed at rapidly isolating all active insurgents and gaining control of this key central Baghdad location".