Move to halt attacks in Baghdad blockade

THE Iraqi government said yesterday a security cordon of 40,000 Iraqi soldiers and police will ring Baghdad starting next week in what it dubbed Operation Lightning.

It is aimed at halting a spree of insurgent violence that has killed more than 620 people this month.

At least 15 Iraqis died in violence nationwide, including a child killed during clashes between US forces and insurgents in the northern city of Tal Afar. Among the dead were a university professor, slain in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad, and three policemen killed in a car bombing in the capital. The military also said a US Marine died of wounds sustained a day earlier during the launch of an anti-insurgent offensive involving about 1,000 US troops in the western city of Haditha.