Officials considering a trench around Kirkuk

U.S. and Iraqi officials Tuesday announced a ban on truck traffic into Kirkuk and proposed digging a trench around the northern city, where a series of bombs killed at least 76 people a day earlier.

The idea of encircling the city with a trench underscored fears that the violence in Baghdad and neighboring Diyala province will overtake the once-peaceful north as increased U.S. troop levels drive insurgents from the capital. Police in a village in Diyala said Tuesday that they suspected that Sunni Muslim militants chased out of the provincial capital of Baqubah were to blame for the slaying of 28 Shiite Muslims.

The Shiites were killed Monday night in Duwailiya. Police Col. Raghib Radhi said he thought the attackers had come from Baqubah, where a U.S. military offensive launched last month has targeted insurgents loyal to the Sunni militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq. Some gunmen wore Iraqi army uniforms, which authorities say is a common ploy by insurgents.

In Baghdad, at least 24 people died Tuesday in two car bombings, including one in the parking lot of the Iranian Embassy near the well-fortified Green Zone. Four people died in that attack. The other 20 victims were killed by a bomb that went off near a police patrol in east Baghdad, authorities said.

The unidentified bodies of 24 people, believed to be victims of sectarian death squads, were found across the capital, police reported.

At a meeting in Kirkuk, officials announced the indefinite truck ban and the digging of the trench, which already had been planned on the southwestern and western edges of the city. There was no indication of when the project would be finished. Similar plans have been suggested for Baghdad but never have come to fruition.

Kurdish leaders are hoping to make Kirkuk part of the semiautonomous region of Kurdistan and could be driven to isolate the city. The Iraqi Constitution calls for a referendum this year on whether Kirkuk should join the region. Few expect it to take place as scheduled because of logistical issues, but that has not lessened the Kurds’ desire to claim the city as their own.

The U.S. military announced a major offensive in Al Anbar province involving 9,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops and focusing on towns on the western side of the Euphrates River. A military statement said the operation began Saturday and was aimed at preventing insurgents from establishing new bases in the area.

During a visit to the province’s capital, Ramadi, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, said such operations have led to a “sea change” in Iraq in terms of better security in Baghdad and elsewhere.

Several operations targeting Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias are underway in the so-called belts around Baghdad. They began last month as the last of 28,500 additional troops sent to Iraq by President Bush settled into place.

Sunni-dominated Al Anbar has seen a turnaround as its tribal sheiks, who once harbored anti-U.S. militants, have turned against them and are cooperating with U.S. forces. The leader of the effort, Sheik Abdul Sattar Rishawi, told state-run Al Arabiya TV that it was being hampered by the Iraqi government.

“There is no ammunition and no arms from the government,” said Rishawi, who heads the Anbar Salvation Council.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has expressed discomfort with the idea of arming tribes, saying this could create militias that might one day turn on his Shiite-led government.

tina.susman@latimes.com

Special correspondents in Baqubah and Baghdad contributed to this report.