U.S. Obeys Order to Abandon Checkpoints

Jubilant Iraqis carry a flag of Iraqi militia Mahdi Army and a national flag after US troops dismantled checkpoints around Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City Tuesday Oct. 31 2006. Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Tuesday ordered the lifting of joint U.S.-Iraqi military checkpoints around the Shiite militant stronghold of Sadr City and other parts of Baghdad. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim) (Karim Kadim - AP)

Three people were killed and five injured by a car bomb in Sadr City early Tuesday, a day after 33 were killed in a similar attack in the district targeting day laborers lining up for jobs.

Both attacks were carried out despite the U.S. security cordon, bringing accusations from residents that the checkpoints had decreased security by restricting the movement of Mahdi fighters.

At least three Iraqi policemen were also reported killed on Tuesday morning in Baghdad and the volatile western city of Fallujah, police said.

The bodies five unidentified people, including a woman, were found dumped early Tuesday morning in eastern Baghdad, police Maj. Mahir Hamid Mussa said. Those killed had been tied up and blindfolded, with their bodies showing signs of torture, Mussa said.

Five more bodies in similar condition were floating in the Tigris River near Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad, a clerk at the town morgue, Hadi al-Etabi, said.

Further south, the morgue in the town of Kut reported receiving 10 bodies, including those of five people allegedly killed by U.S. forces in a raid on a house in the Shejeriyah area, 18 miles south of Baghdad, said Maamoun Ajil al-Robaeie, a morgue employee.

New violence was also reported in Baqouba, a chaotic city north of Baghdad where police and militants fought bloody gunbattles last week.

Unidentified gunmen killed three people in a downtown market and attacked a police patrol, killing one officer and injuring two others, according to a spokesman for the Diyala provincial police.

Five bodies were found in the Abu Seida district, 25 kilometers (10 hectares) northeast of the city, said the police spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Gunmen killed Sheik Raed Naeem al-Juheishi, the head of a non-governmental organization dedicated to tracing the fate of victims of the former regime of Saddam Hussein, in a drive-by-shooting Monday night in Baghdad's chaotic Dora district, Col. Mohammed Ali said.

Saddam and seven co-defendants _ including a half brother _ have been on trial since Oct. 19, 2005 for their alleged roles in the deaths of about 150 Shiites in Dujail following an assassination attempt against the president in 1982.

A second trial _ for genocide against the Kurds _ began in August and more are expected to follow.

The military said U.S. troops killed five suspected insurgents and detained one on Tuesday morning during a raid in Baghdad targeting suspected associates of a senior of the al-Qaida in Iraq terrorist group.