http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070214/ts_nm/iraq_dc;_ylt=AslmN9z4.XXDBxsdlrRBzvqs0NUETroops out in force for Baghdad sweep
By Dean Yates and Ibon Villelabeitia 2 hours, 40 minutes ago
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces set up new checkpoints and stepped up joint patrols in Baghdad on Wednesday, for the first time showing war-weary residents that a long-promised offensive against militants was under way.
The U.S. military said anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who leads a militia that Washington calls the greatest threat to Iraqi security, had left the country and was in
Iran. The cleric's aides denied Sadr had fled.
The United States also backed away from a senior U.S. defense official's comments implicating Iran's government in arming Iraqi militants, insisting it was not trying to "hype" evidence of Iranian weapons being used in
Iraq.....
edit to add from AP story (below)
......A U.S. soldier also died Wednesday after coming under small arms fire a day earlier from insurgents while on patrol north of Baghdad, the military said. Separately, another soldier died Tuesday in a non-combat-related incident that is under investigation, it said.
At least 38 Iraqis also were killed or found dead nationwide, including four civilians who died when a parked car bomb struck a predominantly Shiite district in central Baghdad, although only five bullet-riddled bodies were found on the streets of the capital, an unusually low number of apparent victims of so-called sectarian death squads mainly run by Shiite militias that have killed thousands in the past year.