Security clampdown ahead of expected Saddam verdict

US and Iraqi forces set up extra checkpoints, boosted patrols, and blocked traffic across a main Baghdad bridge today, one day before the expected announcement of a verdict – and possible death sentence – in the trial of former leader Saddam Hussein.

Leave for all military personnel has been cancelled indefinitely and holidaying soldiers recalled to active duty, in of one of the heaviest security crackdowns in Baghdad since the unleashing of rampant sectarian violence following the bombing of a main Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra in February.