At least seven Iraqis were killed today, including two policemen and the head of a protection force for oil facilities.
Four people were killed and eight injured when a suicide bomber rammed his car into two police vehicles at a roadside checkpoint in southwest Baghdad. Two were policemen who burned to death in their vehicle.
The bodies of eight Iraqi civilians, tortured and then executed with a bullet to the back of the neck, were found earlier on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, north of Yussufiah.
They are believed to be from Sadr City, a Shiite district of northern Baghdad.
Iraqi security forces arrested 154 suspects in the restive Al-Rasheed district of southern Baghdad in the past three days.
Iraqi soldiers on Monday detained 47 suspects in Dura, and later picked up another 34 suspected insurgents in the Abu Dsheer neighborhood.
It was the first time that Iraqi security forces in the region had planned and conducted such raids on their own.
Major offensive in western Iraq
US forces say they killed 75 insurgents in the first 24 hours of an offensive which began yesterday in the western province of Anbar.
The military said a number of foreign fighters were among those killed.
US marines and aircraft have been taking part in the operation, in a region said to be known as a smuggling route and a sanctuary for foreign fighters.
The military statement did not say if there had been any casualties among the American forces or their allies.
US military confirm deaths yesterday
The US military has confirmed that three US soldiers were killed in Iraq yesterday.
Two were killed by a roadside bomb in Khaldiya, an insurgent stronghold in western Iraq, and the third was killed by a roadside bomb in the northern town of Samarra.
In Haditha, northwest of Baghdad, three US marines and a sailor were killed on Saturday by insurgents who launched an attack from a hospital.
The latest toll from the Pentagon confirms that 1,601 US soldiers have been killed since hostilities began.
