A militant umbrella body affiliated to al Qaeda claimed responsibility yesterday for some of the bombings that killed 43 people in and near Baghdad on Saturday in defiance of a security clampdown. It was one of the bloodiest days in Iraq since the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Sunni Arab insurgent Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a U.S. air strike on June 7.

The Mujahideen Shura Council, which had pledged to continue until ?doomsday? what it described as the holy war against crusader forces, said in a statement that it was behind four Baghdad bombs on Saturday, out of the seven reported by police.

The Iraqi capital was relatively calm yesterday morning. But gunmen abducted 10 workers from a bakery in a northwestern district and police said 10 bodies, shot and showing signs of torture, had been found in different places overnight.

The U.S. military declined to comment on reports that American forces were surrounding parts of the western insurgent stronghold of Ramadi to try to cut off rebel supply lines.

A Reuters reporter in the area, which has seen frequent clashes between insurgents and U.S. forces, said some roads into the town were closed, but that this was not unusual.

A U.S. military spokesman said recently that al Qaeda had gained ground in Ramadi and 1,500 extra U.S. troops brought to Iraq would try to break their grip on the town.

One of the Baghdad attacks claimed by the Mujahideen Shura Council, a car bomb at a checkpoint, killed 11 people.

PM under pressure

?It was a blessed operation that led to the torching of three cars and the killing of the soldiers around the building,? the Council said in a statement whose authenticity could not be independently verified.

The Council, which groups al Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni Islamist militant groups to coordinate their fight against U.S.-led forces, said its militants were also behind three other bombings.

It did not give the total number of people killed and two of the attacks did not appear to match police information.

Saturday?s killings came three days after 50,000 Iraqi troops backed by 7,000 U.S.-led forces launched a security sweep to put pressure on insurgents in Baghdad.

The latest wave of violence raised questions about assertions by Iraq?s national security adviser last week that al Qaeda?s days in Iraq were numbered.

It also added to pressure on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has pledged to crush the insurgency against his government, to reduce the bloodshed that has killed thousands of Iraqis since the 2003 U.S. invasion.

Zarqawi ? who was believed to have personally beheaded hostages on videos ? inspired and organized a flow of militants from across the Arab world willing to become suicide bombers to fight U.S. forces and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.

Five days after his death, al Qaeda named Abu Hamza al-Muhajir as his successor. The U.S. military has said it suspects that Muhajir is Egyptian-born militant Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who formed al Qaeda?s first Baghdad cell, and that it expects him to use the same tactics as his predecessor

In Iran, a Foreign Ministry spokesman ruled out direct talks between Tehran and Washington on Iraq despite being encouraged to take part by an influential Iraqi politician.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a key Shi?ite Muslim party closely allied to Shi?ite Iran, said on Saturday that such talks could benefit both Tehran and Baghdad.

But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a news conference on yesterday: ?We do not have talks with the United States on the agenda now.?

Relations between former war foes Iran and Iraq have improved since the fall of Saddam Hussein three years ago, followed by the rise to power of Iraq?s once-marginalized Shi?ite majority.

Fredrik DAHL

?TRIANGLE OF DEATH?

Missing US troops in area where many live in fear

■ Two U.S. soldiers missing in Iraq since Friday disappeared into a lawless al Qaeda stronghold where residents describe being terrorised by unknown militants. Military helicopters and divers are combing the rural Euphrates river area south of Baghdad for the troops who went missing after an attack on their checkpoint near the town of Yusufiya killed another U.S. soldier. Most people in the Sunni Arab region resent the presence of the U.S. troops. But even if they wanted to help the two soldiers, doing so could be fatal. ?We live in fear. Gunmen always go to people?s houses asking about who works for the Iraqi army or police or the Americans,? taxi driver Abdullah Jassim.

?If they find out you have any ties with the Americans or the Iraqi government they will certainly kill you.? Yusufiya is in an area some Iraqis call the ?Triangle of Death? for its frequent attacks by insurgents who carry out bombings, shootings and kidnappings as part of a campaign aimed at toppling the Shi?ite-led, U.S.-backed government.