US troops roll into Baghdad to stem sectarian bloodshed [View All]

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http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2006/August/focusoniraq_August39.xml§ion=focusoniraq

BAGHDAD - US reinforcements rolled into some of the most violent districts of Baghdad on Sunday in a fleet of 17-tonne armoured troop carriers as part of a major push to halt Iraq’s slide towards civil war.

Units of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team deployed in flashpoint districts in the west of the capital, which in recent weeks has seen hundreds of civilians murdered by sectarian death squads.

As they arrived, the blasts of two roadside bombs echoed around the city, while security forces recovered 17 corpses across Baghdad; four Iraqi soldiers and 13 civilians who had been tortured and shot dead, police said. snip

The plan has so far failed to contain the violence, however, as daily bombings target police and civilians, and faceless death squads kidnap, torture and shoot more than a dozen victims daily.

Some attacks are carried out by anti-government insurgents, some by militias loyal to factions in the coalition, some by criminals, and some by sectarian extremists from the rival Sunni and Shiite communities.