The Iraqi government has pledged to launch a major security operation to crack down on insurgent violence, which has seen a dramatic rise in the last month with the deaths of over 600 Iraqis.
The country's Defence Minister said that 40,000 Iraqi troops would be deployed in the capital, Baghdad, in an effort to stamp out suicide bombings and ambushes.
However, he did not say when the crackdown, dubbed Operation Thunder, would begin.
Zarqawi wounding confirmed
In a separate announcement, the Iraqi Interior Minister, Bayan Jabor, confirmed yesterday's reports that Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been wounded.
The confirmation come as Al-Qaeda's Iraq network denied, in an Internet statement, that it had named an acting chief to replace its wounded leader.
Violent attacks persisted across Iraq today despite the announcement of a security crackdown. At least 10 people were killed in bomb blasts and shootings.
Three were killed and six wounded when a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle near a police patrol in Baghdad.
Separately, six people were killed in three separate shootings.
The victims included the director general of the Iraqi industry ministry, a member of Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's Dawa party, and a deputy unversity dean.
In the northern city of Mosul, the US military said it had shot dead a child in returning fire after coming under attack, claiming militants had used the child as a human shield.
