Iraqi army launches offensive to flex its strength

Diyala has long been a battleground for Sunni militants and Shiite militias. Iraqi army spokesman Col. Ahmed Shawkat said the security operation called "the Heralders of Good" would target the militias, as well as Al Qaeda in Iraq and criminal elements in the northeastern province.

A curfew was imposed on Baquba, the provincial capital. Army and national police fanned out at checkpoints set up around the city and outlying areas. Shawkat said the offensive would cover the entire province.

The Iraqi offensive is hoping to capitalize on the army's previous successes in the southern cities of Basra and Amarah, where the security forces have wrested the streets back from militias since the spring. A similar campaign in Mosul to the north has had mixed success.

The army's strides have convinced Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government that Iraq could operate without U.S. combat troops by the end of 2010.

Diyala will be a tough test of that theory. With its mixed population, the province has a volatile collection of Shiite militants associated with groups such as the Mahdi Army, and the radical Sunni group Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The Shiite-led national government has tense relations in Baquba with the U.S.-backed Sons of Iraq, a group of former insurgents who have turned on their radical Sunni brethren.

In February, the Sons of Iraq accused Maj.-Gen. Ghaneim Quraishi, the province's police commander, of having links to Shiite militias and torturing Sunni detainees.

Quraishi withstood pressure for his dismissal.

The campaign in Baquba started a day after at least 57 people were killed in violence in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk. The bloodshed was a reminder that despite an overall drop in violence, radical groups retain the ability to kill and wreak havoc around the country.

Ethnic clashes broke out in Kirkuk on Monday after a female suicide bomber struck a demonstration by about 3,000 Kurds, who were protesting what they see as an infringement on Kurdish sovereignty by the national government.

A Kurdish mob responded by attacking the building of the Turkmen Front political party, rampaging through offices and setting it on fire. Turkmen guards fired on the crowd, and at least 12 people were killed in the fighting, security officials said.

The head of security for the Turkmen Front building was arrested, they added.

Staff writers Said Rifai, Caesar Ahmed and Ned Parker contributed to this report