Iraqi plan to curb sectarian killings moves ahead; more death-squad victims found

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's government forged ahead with a plan aimed at ending sectarian attacks, even as a bombing in the capital killed 10 people Tuesday and officials discovered scores of new death-squad victims.

The bomb, planted under a car in the mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood of Dora in south Baghdad, ripped through a line of people waiting in line outside a bakery — the worst of the day's attacks, which left a total of 18 dead around the country.

The U.S. command announced the deaths of two more soldiers, one killed Monday on patrol in Baghdad and the other near Tikrit on Sunday when a roadside bomb blew up next to his vehicle.

The military also said Iraqi and U.S. troops killed at least nine fighters in clashes with the Mahdi Army — Iraq's most powerful Shiite militia — in the southern city of Diwaniya on Monday, the second straight day of battles there.

The fight started when two grenades were thrown at U.S. and Iraqi soldiers who had stopped to talk to Iraqi police, the military said in a statement. The patrol then came under fire from gunmen wearing Iraqi police uniforms, the statement said.

On Sunday, U.S.-Iraqi forces in Diwaniya battled for hours with members of the Mahdi Army, loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The military said 30 fighters were killed.

Authorities also discovered the mutilated bodes of 60 men in the 24-hour period ending Tuesday morning, police 1st Lt. Mohamed Khayon said. The bullet-riddled bodies found dumped in several Baghdad neighborhoods all had their hands and feet bound and showed signs of torture — hallmarks of death-squad killings. The victims ranged in age from 20 to 50, he said.

Baghdad has been plagued by escalating sectarian violence that has seen thousands killed this year, and the Shiite-controlled Interior Ministry and its police forces have been accused of complicity in allowing militias to roam freely.

Under intense pressure to put an end to it, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki a week ago announced a four-point security plan aimed at uniting the divided parties behind efforts to stop Shiite-Sunni killings.

In a first step, officials said Tuesday that all security checkpoints in Baghdad would soon be manned by an equal number of Shiite and Sunni Arab troops to ensure the security forces do not allow sectarian attacks.