40,000 Iraqi troops to fight insurgency in Baghdad

The Iraqi government is to deploy 40,000 troops around Baghdad to stop the daily insurgent attacks on the capital that have claimed dozens of lives in the past month.

The Iraqi government is to deploy 40,000 troops around Baghdad to stop the daily insurgent attacks on the capital that have claimed dozens of lives in the past month.

It will be the biggest operation since the handover of power by the Americans last June and comes during a lethal upsurge in bombings and shootings that followed a lull in the violence during the elections.

The Iraqi force will be backed by 10,000 US troops and the operation is due to be extended to other cities once results from the pilot scheme have been analysed, said the Iraqi defence ministry. The government also said it believed reports that the militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been injured. At the same time conflicting statements appeared on the website used by Zarqawi's group, al-Qa'ida in Iraq, about a successor. One version was that a commander called Abu Hafs al-Qami will take over as temporary leader. But a second statement, signed in the name of Abu Mayzarah al-Iraqi, the "media co-ordinator", denied this had happened.

It added that the group had announced Zarqawi's wounding to show its news credibility and allay fears following reports that the leader had been killed. "You will hear what will make you happy, faithful brothers, and the allies of Satan will hear what will spite them," it said.

Saadun al-Dulaimi, the Defence Minister, said that although Zarqawi may be out of action because of his injuries, the offensive against the insurgents must continue. Mr Dulaimi said the deployment around Baghdad would have an "offensive posture", with 600 checkpoints. He said Baghdad would be divided into sections and a unit of troops responsible for each. "We will also impose a stringent blockade around Baghdad, like a bracelet around an arm, God willing, and God be with us in our crackdown on the terrorists' infrastructure," he said.

But even as Mr Dulaimi spoke, attacks continued, with at least 15 people killed.

A suicide car bomber killed three people at a police patrol in Shola, a poor district of the capital. In central Baghdad, Thamer Ghaidan, a director general at the industry ministry, was shot dead. In the south of the city, gunmen shot dead Professor Moussa Salum, a deputy dean at Baghdad's Mustansiriya University, with his three bodyguards.