IRAQ: Bombers killed up to 40 Iraqis yesterday, mostly in Baghdad, but the top US commander said a security drive in the capital was making progress and local forces could largely be running Iraq within 12 to 18 months.
Gen George Casey declined to be drawn on what that might mean for how many American troops could go home, and when.
He told reporters a fierce battle on Monday in which Shia militiamen in a southern city killed at least 20 Iraqi soldiers - 13 of them "executed" after they ran out of bullets - was not a setback. Continuing operations would show that the US-trained Iraqi army had the upper hand in Diwaniya, he said.
A bomb in a crowded wholesale market in central Baghdad killed 24 people and wounded 35, the latest of several attacks in recent days which have broken a lull. They may be intended by suspected Sunni insurgents to defy a clampdown on Sunni areas which, US officers say, has halved the death rate this month.
Three people were killed when a bomb blasted a bus in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, where Arabs and ethnic Kurds are disputing control. Eleven bus passengers were also wounded.
In the mainly Shia city of Hilla, south of Baghdad, a bomb on a parked bicycle killed 12 and wounded 38 as young men crowded outside an army recruiting centre. A favoured target for Sunni rebels, such centres also draw many impoverished Iraqis, especially from the newly empowered Shia Muslim majority.
In Shia Samawa, further south, police shot and killed a man when would-be soldiers threw rocks after being turned away at a recruiting office. Pay checks have drawn many into Iraq's new security forces, which are key to US hopes for withdrawal.
"I don't have a date, but I can see over the next 12-18 months the Iraqi security forces progressing to a point where they can take on the security responsibilities for the country, with very little coalition support," Gen Casey said in Baghdad.
Quizzed by reporters about the performance of Iraqi troops in Diwaniya, he said: " acquitted themselves quite well. They had losses, but they gave much better than they got." Neither Gen Casey nor the Iraqi defence minister, who visited the Shia city, would identify their enemy, but local fighters say they are loyal to radical young Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose movement also has seats in the ruling coalition.
Both officials said a campaign would go on to break militia influence in Diwaniya, one of many southern cities where armed Shia factions are jockeying for power.
Mr al-Sadr's local Mehdi army leaders have denied official assertions that they lost 50 men.
Defence minister Abdul Qader Jasim said 13 of his men were killed - "executed" - after surrendering when they ran out of ammunition. He did not confirm reports from Diwaniya residents that militiamen hanged some soldiers in the street.
Building up Iraq's forces to take over from some 150,000 mainly American foreign troops is proving a major challenge for the government of Shia prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, who takes over formal command of Iraq's army next month.
Gen Casey said efforts to end opposition would involve both political efforts and military action.