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Bodies marked 'traitor' found in Baghdad

Bombings in Baghdad, Kirkuk kill at least 5

An Iraqi police officer inspects the pieces of a car after it was blown up in Kirkuk.

Gallery: Bombs rock Sadr City

• Ex-judge defends death orders

SPECIAL REPORT

• Interactive: Who's who in Iraq

• Interactive: Sectarian divide

• Timeline: Bloodiest days for civilians

• Coalition Casualties

• Special Report

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Attacks around Iraq on Monday claimed five lives and wounded at least 31 people, officials said.

Authorities said there were several bombings in Baghdad -- including one that killed a U.S. soldier -- and in Kirkuk.

Also Monday, police said they found four people shot to death in Sadr City, the large Shiite slum in eastern Baghdad where six car bombs Sunday killed at least 46 people and wounded 204 others. (Full story)

The bodies of the four people found shot dead Monday had signs calling them traitors. (Watch journalists cover the last moments of a colleague's life -- 2:42)

In northern Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed one person and wounded six others Monday morning in the Taji area, Baghdad Emergency Police said.

Nine people were wounded, including four Iraqi police officers, by a roadside bomb near an Iraqi police patrol in southern Baghdad, police said.

And in the Harthiye neighborhood, a car bomb wounded four civilians. The blast apparently targeted a U.S. military convoy and missed.

In Kirkuk, two car bombs targeting police killed one civilian and wounded 12 others, a police official said. Kirkuk is about 155 miles (250 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

The violence continued in central Baghdad on Monday afternoon, when members of a security company fired on a vehicle, killing two guards for Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi.

Sunday's attacks in Sadr City, the capital's largest Shiite neighborhood, fueled further fears of sectarian reprisals in the wake of Sunni vs. Shiite violence sparked by the February 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra.

Sadr City is home to many poor Shiites and is often patrolled by militia members of the Mehdi Army.

Those men -- perhaps as many as 10,000 -- are loyal to firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the son of the late religious figure for whom the neighborhood is named.

In his home city of Najaf, al-Sadr reportedly called for Iraqis to work together.

"Sunnis and Shiites are not responsible for such acts," al-Sadr said Monday, according to the Associated Press. "National unity is required.

"We are not weak, but we don't want to be dragged to a civil war. So, I will keep calling for calm," he added.

U.S. toll rises

The U.S. military announced the death of two troops Monday.

A U.S. soldier died Monday from wounds sustained in a roadside bomb attack in eastern Baghdad, according to a military statement.

On Sunday, a U.S. Marine was killed during combat in Anbar province in western Iraq, the military said.

Since March 2003, 2,309 U.S. service members have died in the war in Iraq.

Bush fights low rating

President Bush launched a new effort to shore up support for the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq on Monday and accused Iran of providing explosives used to attack American troops. (Full story)

The speech at George Washington University was the first of a series of planned appearances the White House is hoping will turn around a longstanding slide in support for the war, a week away from its third anniversary.

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday found only 36 percent of Americans approved of Bush's performance in office -- a new low for his presidency in that poll -- and 57 percent said they considered the March 2003 invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein a mistake.

Only 32 percent of those polled from Friday through Sunday said they thought Bush had a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq, while 67 percent said he did not. (Full story)

But Monday, Bush said U.S. forces were "making progress" in the war, building up Iraqi troops and finding ways to counteract the roadside bombs behind a large proportion of U.S. casualties.

He also praised Iraqis for averting civil war despite the sectarian violence after the Samarra mosque bombing.

"The situation in Iraq is still tense, and we're still seeing acts of sectarian violence and reprisal," Bush said. "Yet out of this crisis, we've also seen signs of a hopeful future."

Other developments

Iraq's prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said Monday that he has the support of the Iraqi public and gave no indication that he would step aside despite strong opposition from some Iraqi political parties. The 275-member parliament is scheduled to convene Thursday to begin the arduous process of selecting a new government. (Full story)

Britain will pull about 800 troops out of Iraq by the end of May, cutting its contingent in the south of the country by nearly 10 percent, Defense Secretary John Reid has announced. (Full story)

On Sunday, a roadside bomb killed a police officer and wounded four others in Baquba, an official with the Diyala Joint Coordination Center said. Baquba is about 35 miles (60 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

South of Baquba, one civilian was killed Sunday and two others were wounded when a roadside bomb blew up in the town of Bani Saad.

CNN's Arwa Damon and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

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