Car bomb kills three in Baghdad's Sadr City

BAGHDAD, Feb 21 (Reuters) A car bomb killed three people and wounded five in the Baghdad Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City today, police sources said.

The bomb exploded outside a restaurant in a market district of Sadr City, the sources said. The sprawling, poverty-stricken district in the northeast of the capital has frequently been attacked by Sunni insurgents.

US and Iraqi forces have launched a major security crackdown in Baghdad aimed at halting sectarian violence that threatens to pitch the country into all out civil war.

Since the security plan was formally launched a little over a week ago, the US and the Iraqi military say there has been a big drop in sectarian bloodshed overall.

But chief US military spokesman Major-General William Caldwell noted today car bombings in the capital were not under control. He also said bombers were increasingly using suicide vests, probably because of tighter vehicle checks.

Caldwell said it would be premature to declare the operation a ''success''.

Sadr City, the stronghold of the Mehdi Army, a militia loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, has been the scene of some of the most deadly car bomb attacks in recent months.

REUTERS AB RN2136