Iraq attacks kill 31

A series of bomb and mortar attacks killed at least 31 people in and near Baghdad yesterday in violence that showed no sign of easing despite a security crackdown against Al-Qaeda in the Iraqi capital.

The attacks, a day after a suicide bomber killed 10 people in a Baghdad Shi'ite mosque, followed a vow by Al-Qaeda's new leader in Iraq to avenge the death of his predecessor Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a US air strike on June 7.

In the worst attack, a car bomb targeting Iraqi army and police killed 11 people. A Reuters cameraman saw a charred body being taken on a stretcher to an ambulance. A man with blood on his face stood nearby looking stunned and smoking a cigarette.

US military helicopters and divers searched for two US soldiers missing after an attack on Friday in which one American soldier was killed in the insurgent bastion of Yusufiya in the "Triangle of Death" south of Baghdad.

Major General William Caldwell, the spokesman for the US military in Iraq, said in a statement said teams of divers were working the canals and Euphrates river near Yusufiya, a rural area which has seen fierce fighting between US forces and Al-Qaeda militants.

More than 2,500 US soldiers have died in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.

US President George W. Bush, facing sagging domestic support over the war, said yesterday that America had come too far to abandon Iraq now and encouraged other nations to make good on $13 billion in pledges to help the new Iraqi government.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, under pressure to rein in violence that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, launched a security operation on Wednesday with 50,000 Iraqi troops backed by 7,000 US troops to pile pressure on Al-Qaeda.

But the sweep, mounted one day after Bush made a surprise visit to Baghdad to bolster Maliki's month-old government, has failed to stop attacks.