Iraqi forces launched a new security drive in Baghdad Saturday to quell violence in the embattled city's neighbourhoods, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said, as state television reported 30 militants were killed in a gun battle.

Al-Maliki said Saturday the new effort — with U.S. troops in a supporting role — was designed to take control of Baghdad's embattled neighbourhoods from militias and other sectarian killers.

Iraqis gather around a car destroyed in a car bomb attack in Baghdad on Saturday.
(Adil al-Khazali/Associated Press)

The firefight in a Sunni neighbourhood of central Baghdad between Iraqi army forces and militants apparently marked the start of the government's drive to contain Sunni insurgents and Shia death squads.

According to the state television report, eight militants were also arrested — including five Sudanese — following the firefight in the insurgent-held neighbourhood that housed Iraqi government and military officials during Saddam Hussein's rule.

"The Baghdad security plan will not offer a safe shelter for outlaws regardless of their ethnic and political affiliations, and we will punish anyone who hesitates to implement orders because of his ethnic and political background," al-Maliki said.

The offensive comes as U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to give details of a new strategy to help secure Iraq in the coming days.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said this past week that any new effort to stabilize Baghdad would likely involve traditional, large-scale U.S. operations as well as night-time raids by smaller, more mobile forces.

Daily tally of killings

Hours before the firefight was reported, police said they had found 27 bodies in the same area, along Sunni-dominated Haifa Street about four kilometres north of the heavily fortified Green Zone.

Police called for the Iraqi army to help remove the bodies because it was too dangerous for the lightly armed police force.

The bodies were among 71 found in Baghdad, with nine more found outside the capital in what has become a daily tally of sectarian and reprisal killings in the capital. Most of the victims showed signs of torture.

On Saturday, al-Maliki asked residents of the Iraqi capital for patience during the new security operation.

"We are full aware that implementing the plan will lead to some harassment to all of beloved Baghdad's residents, but we are confident that they fully understand the brutal terrorist attacks Iraq faces," he said during a speech to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the Iraqi army.

Elsewhere in the capital and nationwide Saturday, police said at least 17 other people were reported killed as a result of sectarian violence.

In one incident, eight members of a senior Shia police official's family were murdered while he was away from home at work.

With files from the Associated Press