(Reuters) — Bombs killed at least 34 people in Baghdad on Thursday but Iraq's prime minister vowed a crackdown in the capital would leave gunmen nowhere to hide. In a speech to parliament, Nouri Maliki urged politicians on all sides to support his security plan, backed by 17,000 US reinforcements and seen by many as a last chance to halt sectarian violence in the capital. "There will be no safe haven — no school, no home, no [Sunni] mosque or Shiite mosque. They will all be raided if they are turned into a launchpad for terrorism, even the headquarters of political parties," he said.Maliki said his determination had already borne fruit. "I know that senior criminals have left Baghdad, others have fled the country. This is good, this shows that our message is being taken seriously," he said.
Some fear that gunmen may simply avoid confrontation in the crackdown, betting that eventually US troops will leave. "There is a... concern they might be lying low, avoiding conflict now in order to fight another day," US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said on Wednesday.
Criticised for not doing enough about Shiite groups linked to some of his allies, Maliki has vowed to take on armed groups regardless of sect or political affiliation. "We have worked hard to get professional officers to lead this plan, with no political affiliations. So let's all help these officers," he said, answering criticism that the army and police were infiltrated by sectarian factions.
Washington has identified the Mehdi Army, loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, as the greatest threat to security in Iraq and has warned that the success of Maliki's plan depends on him going after Shiite factions with as much determination as he deals with Sunni Arab insurgents. The prime minister, who depends on Sadr's political movement for support in parliament, has been accused of failing to crack down on the Mehdi Army in the past, but officials in his Shiite alliance say he has now accepted he must take action. A senior member of the Sadrist movement, Bahaa Araji, pledged the group's support for the plan in parliament, as did the main Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties. The parliament voted unanimously to support the plan.
Since Maliki announced his plan earlier this month there have been a series of bombings and dozens of bodies continue to be found dumped in the city, apparent victims of death squads. Thirty-three were found on Wednesday alone.
A car bomb ripped through a shopping district in Karrada in central Baghdad, killing 26 people and wounding 64, a police source said. Another car bomb and a motorcycle bomb exploded in other markets, killing five people, while a roadside bomb killed three, police said. Earlier this week a double bombing at a market killed at least 88 people in central Baghdad. Two rockets landed in the heavily fortified Green Zone housing the government and embassies, provoking loudspeaker warnings to people to take cover. The US military had no immediate information on casualties.
Maliki said Iraqi security forces would start to remove squatters from Baghdad homes they have illegally occupied since the owners fled sectarian intimidation and ethnic cleansing. "Today or tomorrow we will start arresting those who are living in the homes of refugees, to open the way for their return," he said.
Tens of thousands of people, including Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Christians, have fled their homes in Baghdad because of violence and threats that have turned many formerly mixed districts into sectarian enclaves. Maliki rejected suggestions his security plan was a last chance: "The battle between us and terrorism is an open-ended battle. It does not stop with the end of this plan."
Commenting on Maliki's speech, White House spokesman Tony Snow described it as "a very assertive address on the part of the prime minister", adding: "We certainly welcome that because it demonstrates the kind of vigour that we've been talking about and that the American people expect." Snow was speaking to reporters on Thursday on board Air Force One on his way to Kansas City, Missouri, with President George W. Bush.
With US public patience running thin, US President George W. Bush's plan to send 21,500 extra troops has met stiff opposition in the new Democrat-dominated Congress. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday voted 12-9 against the new war strategy in a resolution that is due for a vote by the entire Senate next week.