Booms were heard across Baghdad as U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a major operation in a Sunni neighborhood on Thursday, a spokesman said. Iraqi army Brig. Qassim Moussawi, spokesman for the Iraqi commander of the Baghdad security plan, said a joint U.S.-Iraqi force had moved into the southern neighborhood of Dora.
According to the AP, the statement came a day after thousands of American soldiers swept house-to-house through mostly Shiite areas in northeastern Baghdad in the opening phase of the Baghdad security crackdown.
Also Thursday, a mortar attack struck near the heavily fortified Green Zone and the U.S. Embassy said two people were wounded, including an American contractor. The mortar shells landed near an entrance to the vast complex that houses the U.S. and British embassies, as well as Iraqi government offices.
In southern Iraq, British forces sealed off the border with Iran to prevent weapons smuggling. Security forces closed two border points with Iran at al-Sheeb and Shalamcha. Authorities also set up checkpoints around Basra. The British military said the operation would last for 72 hours.
Despite the security measures, two parked car bombs struck Dora near a major intersection with a highway leading to Shiite areas in the south, killing at least four civilians and injuring 15, police said. Later, a car bomb went off in the northeastern Baghdad district of Sadr City, killing three and injuring 17 others, police said.
In another attack, a car packed with explosives targeted an Iraqi patrol in the Sunni district of Jamiaa in western Baghdad, wounding two soldiers, while clashes erupted in another volatile Sunni area, leading to four arrests, police said.
Meanwhile, four American soldiers died by roadside explosions during combat operations in Iraq's Diyala province on Wednesday. Three soldiers were killed when bombs exploded near their vehicles northeast of Baghdad. A fourth died later of his wounds in hospital.
