Baghdad bombs linked to Iran

BAGHDAD, April 28 (UPI) -- Some of the improvised explosive bombs that targeted U.S. and Iraqi forces in Baghdad have links to Iran, U.S. military officials said Monday.

U.S. officials said a relatively lower number of deadly roadside bomb attacks in Baghdad is accompanied by a higher degree of efficiency, USA Today said.

"What we're seeing now is a more effective use of the Iranian munitions that are in our area, and that's directly tied back to more sophisticated training techniques," the commander of U.S. operations in southern Baghdad, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, told USA Today.

U.S. military reports a spike in the number of attacks on the U.S. and Iraqi forces are double their normal levels, signaling an uptick in violence from militants in Sadr City.

More than 2,000 Iraqi soldiers accompanied by U.S. troops entered the Baghdad area of Sadr City to respond to militant rocket fire on the fortified Green Zone that houses U.S. and Iraqi government offices.

The newspaper said 14 of the 33 U.S. deaths in Iraq occurred in Baghdad in April, though U.S. officials point out that Iraqi army casualties are three times those numbers.

U.S. and Iraqi forces occupy about 25 percent of Sadr City.