Violence around Baghdad kills at least 16

Eight people were killed by car bombs in Shi'ite districts of Baghdad yesterday and eight other Shi'ites were shot dead in their beds, Iraqi police said. US forces are targeting Al-Qaeda militants blamed for stoking sectarian hatred between majority Shi'ite and minority Sunni Arabs. Militants used several women and children as a human shield during a clash north of Baghdad, the military said.

The militants eventually set their hostages free, and US troops called in an air strike that killed at least six fighters during the heavy gun battle that followed, the military said.

Gunmen shot dead an Iraqi who worked as a translator for Reuters in Baghdad this week, his family said yesterday, asking that his name not be given for fear of reprisals. He was the third person working for Reuters killed in Baghdad this week.

US and Iraqi forces have launched a big security operation since mid-June, coinciding with the arrival of the last of 28,000 troops ordered to Iraq by US President George W. Bush. Washington hopes they can help quell sectarian bloodshed, allowing Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to deliver political reforms aimed at improving relations with Sunnis, who form the backbone of an anti-US insurgency.

But US public opinion has swung firmly against the war and two senators from Bush's own Republican Party called on Friday for a plan to start bringing troops home before year-end.

Bush wants more time for the clampdown to show results and says there will be no change in course before a September progress report from his top Iraq commander, General David Petraeus, and the county's US ambassador Ryan Crocker. They will review efforts to disrupt Islamist Sunni Al-Qaeda bombing cells blamed for devastating attacks that have pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.