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Nine more bodies found in Baghdad

Baquba car bomb kills policeman

An Iraqi grieves at the site of a roadside bombing Monday in Baghdad.

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- As the war in Iraq entered its fourth year Monday, nine bodies were found shot in the head in Baghdad, said an official with the city's emergency police.

The discoveries bring the number of bodies found in Baghdad to 186 in the last eight days, the official said.

Also Monday, six people, including two Iraqi police commandos, were killed and two wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in central Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood, police said.

North of the capital Monday, a car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint in Baquba, killing an Iraqi policeman and wounding another, an official with the Diyala Joint Coordination Center said.

In recent months, killings apparently based on victims' religions have fueled fears of civil war. Violence seemed to escalate after the February 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra. (Watch how a Baghdad family's life has changed in the last three years -- 4:27)

President Bush offered an optimistic vision for Iraq on Sunday while thanking U.S. troops for their service during the past three years. The president was scheduled to say more about Iraq in Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday.

Meanwhile, opponents of the war marked the anniversary with protests around the world. (Full story)

Casey: No shortage of ammo

The general commanding U.S. forces in Iraq said the insurgency has access to plenty of ammunition.

"Iraq is awash with ammunition," Gen. George Casey told CNN's "Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer." "Ammunition [is] buried all around the country. ... It'll be awhile before they run out of ammunition."

Casey added many of the insurgents' weapons come from inside Iraq.

"The military equipment is also here," he added. "A lot of what was the former army's has gone over to the insurgents.

"But you don't have truckloads of ammunition being smuggled across the border at night. They are primarily resourced internally."

Pentagon officials have said that Iran is trying to exert its influence on the war, and Casey said he believes the Iranian government is behind an influx of bomb technology into Iraq but stressed he couldn't prove it.

"We have very good information that improvised explosive device [homemade bomb] technology is coming from the country of Iran into Iraq destined for Shia insurgent extremist groups," Casey said. "I do not have intelligence to tell me that someone within the Iranian government is behind this."

Iran reportedly has offered to discuss the situation in Iraq with the United States and has denied helping insurgents.

Casey said Operation Swarmer, the military's latest offensive against insurgents in the Samarra area north of Baghdad, probably "got a little bit more hype than it truly deserved" but was accomplishing its mission.

The Pentagon has called the operation the largest air assault in Iraq since U.S.-led forces attacked in 2003.

Casey denied suggestions that the operation was designed to score political points for Bush, who faces some of his lowest approval ratings ever.

"Nothing could be further from the truth," Casey said. "This operation was planned with the Iraqi security forces as intelligence was available. It was an intelligence-based operation. It had nothing to do with politics."

The operation, which began at dawn Thursday with 1,500 U.S. and Iraqi troops, is targeting villages in a rural area of Salaheddin province, where insurgents are believed to be based, according to Iraqi security sources. By Friday, U.S. and Iraqi forces had decreased to 900.

As of Saturday, 60 people remained in custody out of 80 who were initially detained, according to a U.S. military spokesman. The other suspects had been released.

The U.S. military reported no casualties or firefights during the first three days of the offensive. (Watch what is being considered a "quiet" operation -- 1:54)

Other developments

Iraqi officials met Monday to discuss the distribution of 500 million Iraqi dinars ($356,000) in humanitarian aid for more than 3,700 families displaced by sectarian violence that followed the Samarra shrine attack. The families live in 10 of Iraq's 18 provinces. Nearly half are in the southern provinces of Najaf, Qadisiya, Thiqar and Maysan.

A police officer was killed and 10 people wounded -- including nine police -- when a roadside bomb hit a patrol Sunday in Baquba.

A roadside bomb wounded three Iraqi police officers Sunday in the northern city of Kirkuk. Also in Kirkuk, the bodies of two missing police were found. They had been stabbed to death.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote in Sunday's Washington Post that "turning our backs on postwar Iraq today would be the modern equivalent of handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis." Rumsfeld's characterization came under fire from top officials in two former administrations. (Full story)

CNN's Mike Mount, Barbara Starr and Mohammad Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

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