Police find 57 murdered in Baghdad in 24 hours

BAGHDAD, Nov 3 (Reuters) Police in Baghdad found 56 bodies and a severed head over the past 24 hours in various parts of the capital, the highest daily figure since the end of Ramadan, an Interior Ministry source said today.

While not unprecedented, the number represents a sharp rise since last week when US forces were out in force throughout the city hunting for a missing US soldier.

The body count in Baghdad on Wednesday was 35 and the daily figure was generally lower in the previous week. On October 22, one of the last days of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, the Interior Ministry source reported 50 bodies found in 24 hours.

US troops lifted roadblocks around the Shi'ite slum district of Sadr City on Tuesday when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered them out, flexing his political muscle after a week of public friction with Washington ahead of US elections.

The checkpoints, part of a massive US search for the missing soldier, had brought gridlock to several parts of the city and drawn the ire of people in the Shi'ite slum district of Sadr City who complained of collective punishment.

Sunni Arab leaders, however, warned that lifting them could lead to a surge in sectarian killing by Shi'ite militias.

US Major General William Caldwell said yesterday the number of sectarian killings had fallen in the past week, following a surge during Ramadan.

He attributed last week's drop to a combination of the end of Ramadan, calls by clerics and politicians for calm and the greater US troop presence in Baghdad.

Caldwell said sectarian killings had fallen 41 per cent in Baghdad in the past week.

''Last week casualties did decrease with a nationwide drop of approximately 23 per cent,'' he said, adding that it was too early to call it a trend. ''Over the last four weeks, casualties were higher than in the months of August and September.'' REUTERS SY VV1631