Sharp Rise in Baghdad Violence Reported

A shop owner tries to salvage anything of value from his shop destroyed in a bomb attack, Thursday, July 20, 2006, in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Late Wednesday a car bomb exploded in a popular market in Kirkuk, killing one civilian and wounding seven others, police Brig. Sarhat Qadir said. (AP Photo/Yahya Ahmed) (Yahya Ahmed - AP)

Caldwell's comments were among the most frank by a senior American military official about the grave crisis facing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's two-month-old national unity government.

U.S. officials have long pointed to relative peace in many of Iraq's 18 provinces, dismissing the insurgency as a problem limited to Baghdad and sparsely populated Sunni Arab areas to the west and north.

However, Baghdad is the country's major transportation hub, the center of political and economic power, and home to more than 20 percent of the population. Its religiously and politically mixed population makes it a natural battleground for control of the country.

"Baghdad is a must-win not only for the prime minister, but for al-Qaida in Iraq," Caldwell said. "Without Baghdad's centralized access to power brokers, Baghdad's large, diverse population, its financial resources, the terrorists elements will lose here in this country."

With the stakes high, al-Maliki last month unveiled a much-heralded security plan for Baghdad, including up to 50,000 police and soldiers on the streets, more checkpoints and raids in neighborhoods where violence is high.

But with surging attacks in the capital _ including the kidnappings of Iraqi officials _ leading politicians from Shiite and Sunni parties have declared the plan a failure. The United Nations said this week that about 6,000 civilians were killed in May and June, many of them in sectarian violence.

About 50 people were killed Thursday in attacks nationwide, police said. They included a U.S. Marine killed in Anbar province and 12 people who died in a car bombing near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad. Five others were killed by a car bomb in the northern city of Kirkuk.

The crisis in Baghdad raises questions about the ability of Iraq's U.S.-trained police and army to cope with sectarian violence. That in turn casts doubt about the U.S. timetable for handing over security responsibility to the Iraqis in all 18 provinces by the end of next year.

Despite the recent bloodshed, National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said Iraqis will be in charge of security in eight of the 18 provinces before year's end. However, he said the fight against insurgents could last for years.

The government said al-Maliki has dismissed an undisclosed number of security officials for failing to respond to a Monday attack in Mahmoudiya in which at least 51 people were killed. Suspected Sunni gunmen went on a rampage through a market, shooting at shoppers and vendors. Most of the victims were Shiites.

Nevertheless, Caldwell insisted Iraqi forces were "giving their all to bring security to the Baghdadi citizens." He said at least 92 Iraqi police and soldiers had been killed and 444 wounded in fighting in the capital since mid-June.

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Associated Press writers Ryan Lenz, Bassem Mroue, Bushra Juhi and Qais al-Bashir contributed to this report from Baghdad.