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U.S. troops target car bomb factories

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 13, 2007

BAGHDAD - With violence down in Baghdad, U.S. troops will fan out into communities on the rim of the capital to shut down car bomb factories, which remain a threat despite a recent drop in execution-style killings in the city, the U.S. military said Monday.

At least 55 people have been killed by bombs in Baghdad over the past three days, including three security guards who died Monday in a blast targeting an Agriculture Ministry convoy.

Chief U.S. spokesman Maj. Gen. William C. Caldwell said most of the car bombs and improvised explosive devices - the military's term for roadside bombs - are believed to be assembled in makeshift factories in towns just outside the capital.

"And that's where the greater presence of these forces will go," Caldwell said.

U.S. officers have said Baghdad, a city of about 6-million, cannot be secured without extending the security operation into communities that control major highways into the capital. Many Sunni and Shiite extremists are believed to have withdrawn to those outlying areas since the U.S.-led security crackdown began in Baghdad on Feb. 14.

Cheney: Iraq doves undermine forces

WASHINGTON - Antiwar lawmakers in Congress are undermining U.S. troops in Iraq by trying to limit President Bush's spending requests for military operations, Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday.

His remarks came as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scheduled a Wednesday test vote on a resolution that calls for combat troops to leave Iraq by March 2008. Also this week, a House committee will consider legislation that would fully fund the administration's $100-billion request for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan yet demand that troops leave Iraq by the end of August 2008 and possibly the end of 2007.

Fast Facts:

Car bombings

Some of the deadliest car bombings in Iraq this year:

March 5: At least 38 Iraqis die as a suicide car bomber strikes a book market in Baghdad.

Feb. 24: A suicide truck bomber strikes worshippers leaving a Sunni mosque in Habbaniyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, killing at least 52.

Feb. 18: Twin car bombs blow up in a produce market and a row of nearby shops in the Shiite area of New Baghdad, killing at least 62 people and injuring more than 129.

Feb. 12: Three parked cars explode in Baghdad's oldest market, killing at least 78.

Feb. 3: A suicide bomber blows up a truckload of explosives in a food market in a mainly Shiite section of Baghdad, killing at least 137.

[Last modified March 13, 2007, 02:28:35]