Iraqi security forces to dig trenches around Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi security forces will dig trenches around Baghdad in an attempt to prevent insurgents and explosive-laden cars from getting into the sprawling city of 6 million people, the Interior Ministry said Friday.

A vehicle ban curbed violence in the capital after a surge in bloodshed this week, with police reporting only two shooting deaths. But 30 more bodies of torture victims turned up, including one dismembered and thrown into the Tigris River.

A U.S. soldier also was killed when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Friday, shortly after a Marine died in action in Anbar province west of the capital, the U.S. command said.

Baghdad saw more than 130 people slain Wednesday and Thursday -- either killed in bombings or tortured and shot before being dumped on city streets.

The U.S. military blames the surge in sectarian killings on Shiite and Sunni Arab death squads that roam parts of Baghdad. In the mixed northwest Hurriyah neighborhood, leaflets thrown on its streets Friday threatened to kill 10 Sunni Arabs for every Shiite death.

Inspired by Islamic history, the plan for a ditch around Baghdad is the newest twist in what has so far been a losing battle to prevent suicide car bombs and other weapons from being smuggled into the capital.

"Trenches will be dug around Baghdad in the coming weeks," the Interior Ministry spokesman, Brig. Abdul-Kareem Khalaf, told The Associated Press. "They will surround Baghdad."

He provided no details of what distance the trenches would cover, nor how deep or wide they would be. It is about 60 miles around the edge of the city.

In Washington, President Bush also mentioned a new plan to safeguard Baghdad -- but he spoke of using an earthen mound rather than a ditch. "They're building a berm around the city to make it harder for people to come in with explosive devices, for example," he said at a news conference.

Khalaf said the trench plan would restrict vehicle and pedestrian traffic to just 28 entry points, all with guarded checkpoints. Similar checkpoints are set up now on some central routes through Baghdad, including the highway to the airport, but they need hundreds of soldiers to man them.

"We will leave only 28 inlets to Baghdad while all other inlets will be blocked. Supports will be added to the trenches to hinder the movements of people and vehicles. The trenches will be under our watch," Khalaf said.

He said the plan was inspired by the Battle of Khandaq -- Arabic for Battle of the Trench -- in 627, during which Prophet Muhammad protected the city of Medina from an army by digging trenches.

Vehicle bombs have killed at least 960 Iraqis and wounded 2,763 in Baghdad this year, according to an AP count. That's just over a fifth of the city's deaths from war-related violence and nearly a half of its wounded.

Most of the car bombs are thought to be assembled in areas just south of Baghdad, in the so-called Triangle of Death.

There have been past operations seeking to prevent bombs from being smuggled into the capital.

The first such plan -- Operation Lightning -- was launched with much fanfare in May 2005. More than 40,000 Iraqi police and soldiers, backed by U.S. troops and air support. But they failed to cut down on bombings.

A year later, as killings in Baghdad surged, a joint U.S.-Iraqi security offensive known as Operation Together Forward was launched June 15.

It too has made little headway, with the city's death toll surpassing 1,500 in July and triggering fears among U.S. commanders that civil war could break out.

Thousands of U.S. soldiers have moved into Baghdad from volatile Anbar province, where the Sunni-led insurgency is strong. That has raised concerns that security in the west region will worsen, but a U.S. commander said Friday that curbing sectarian violence in Baghdad is a higher priority.

"The main effort is Baghdad, and we must ensure that we weight the main effort," Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli said.

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Associated Press writer Bushra Juhi contributed to this report.