U.S. increases patrols in Baghdad

At a market, a car bomb killed 15 and injured 22.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. troops have sharply increased patrols in Baghdad since the spike in sectarian violence, a U.S. general said Thursday, raising questions about the capabilities of Iraqi forces. A car bomb killed least 15 people in a Shiite area of the capital.
At least 21 other people, including an American soldier and seven members of a Sunni family, were killed Thursday.
With sectarian violence on the rise in Baghdad, the U.S. command boosted the number of armed patrols in the capital from 12,000 in February to 20,000 since the beginning of March, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch told reporters.
Lynch said the increase provides a "more visible presence for the security forces in the streets of Baghdad," which he said insurgents consider their "center of gravity" to stop formation of a new unity government.
Tit-for-tat killings between Shiites and Sunnis soared after the Feb. 22 bombing of a major Shiite shrine in Samarra, triggering reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics. Violence was worse in religiously mixed areas of Baghdad, forcing the Americans to return to neighborhoods such as Shula that had been turned over to the Iraqis.
That casts doubt on the capability of Iraqi forces to deal with sectarian violence, despite assurances from American officials that the new army and police forces were gaining steadily in professional skills.
Deserters unpunished
At the same time, U.S. and Iraqi commanders are increasingly critical of a policy that lets Iraqi soldiers leave their units virtually at will -- essentially deserting with no punishment. They blame the lax rule for draining the Iraqi ranks to confront the insurgency -- in some cases by 30 percent or even half.
Iraqi officials, however, say they have no choice but to allow the policy, or they may gain virtually no volunteers.
The renewed American presence has not been enough to stop the carnage. The car bomb exploded in a vegetable market in Shula packed with shoppers, police said. At least 15 people were killed and 22 were wounded. Last week, a car bomb injured 13 people in the same neighborhood.
A roadside bomb Thursday killed a U.S. soldier southwest of Baghdad, the military said. The U.S. command also reported that a Marine died Wednesday of wounds suffered in hostile action near Baghdad.
More American troops were killed in the first two weeks of April -- 37 -- than in the entire month of March, when 31 died, according to an Associated Press count. At least 2,366 members of the U.S. military have died since the war started in 2003, according to AP.
Sunni family killed
Elsewhere, gunmen stormed the house of a Sunni family in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, and killed seven people, police said. A navy officer and his friend were killed by drive-by shooters while walking downtown in the largely Shiite city.
Late Thursday, insurgents ambushed a convoy of Iraqi police en route from Najaf to the U.S. base at Taji just north of the capital to pick up new vehicles, police said. Officials in Najaf said there were casualties but they had no figures.
In Baghdad, Mahmoud al-Hashimi, whose brother heads Iraq's largest Sunni Arab political party, was slain along with a companion Thursday as they drove through a mostly Shiite area.
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