Police recovered 60 bodies over the past day across Baghdad, most bound and tortured, officials said on Wednesday, highlighting how sectarian death squads are still plaguing the Iraqi capital despite a major security drive.
Two car bombs targeting police killed 22 people during the morning and wounded another 76 people. The first killed 14 outside Baghdad's traffic police headquarters, a second targeted guards at an electricity station in the east of the city.
The death of another US soldier was confirmed in Anbar province, where the commander denied suggestions his force had lost control to al Qaeda and other Sunni insurgents but said stabilising the western desert region would be a job for Iraqi politicians and their US-trained troops and police.
A US soldier was also killed overnight near Baghdad. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was in Iran for a second day of meetings. His fellow Shia leaders pledged support for Iraq and efforts to avert civil war, drawing a wary response from Washington which accused Tehran of funding militants there.
An Interior Ministry official and sources at Baghdad police headquarters said a total of 60 unidentified bodies were found, freshly killed, in various parts of Baghdad over the past day. The tally was among the highest of late, despite a month-old security crackdown by reinforced US and Iraqi troops.
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