Pentagon: Militia more dangerous than al Qaeda in Iraq

Story Highlights

• NEW: 65 bodies found in Baghdad, Baquba
• 13 convicted "terrorist-criminals" hanged
• Gunmen steal nearly a million dollars outside Iraqi bank
• Mehdi Army replaces al Qaeda in Iraq as biggest danger, Pentagon finds

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army has replaced al Qaeda in Iraq as "the most dangerous accelerant" of the sectarian violence plaguing Iraq for nearly a year, according to a Pentagon report.

Attacks by Iraqi insurgents and sectarian militias jumped 22 percent from mid-August to mid-November, and Iraqi civilians suffered the bulk of casualties, according to the quarterly report released on Monday.

The average number of attacks reported each week jumped during that period from nearly 800 to almost 1,000, the report said. (Watch how insurgent and sectarian attacks have become a staple of Iraqi civilian life )

The two most prominent militias -- the Mehdi Army and the Badr Organization -- are armed wings of Shiite political parties whose support is crucial to the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

The Mehdi Army in particular "exerts significant influence in Baghdad and the southern provinces of Iraq and on the government of Iraq," and fights periodic battles with Badr supporters, according to the report. The Badr Organization is affiliated with the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

The Pentagon report comes as Robert Gates takes over as defense secretary to replace Donald Rumsfeld, and as President Bush ponders major changes in the nearly 4-year-old war. (Watch what are Gates' chief challenges in Iraq )

The number of attacks recorded in September and October were the highest on record, the report found, but it provided no specific figures.

Nearly 70 percent of attacks targeted U.S. and allied troops, "but the overwhelming majority of casualties were suffered by Iraqis," the report concluded. (Full story)

On Tuesday, 53 bullet-riddled bodies were found in Baghdad, and another 12 in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, Interior Ministry sources said. Among the dead in Baghdad was Mutashar al-Sudani, a well-known television actor who was kidnapped on Monday, the sources said.

All are believed to be victims of sectarian violence.

'Terrorist-criminals' executed

Thirteen people convicted of killings, rapes and burning of bodies were hanged Tuesday, the Iraqi prime minister's office announced.

The death sentences were carried out after an "investigation was completed, and their confessions taken, according to judicial procedures," the office said in a statement.

One of those executed "confessed to killing 10 people," and another "confessed to killing four members of one family," the statement said.

A third "could not remember how many people he killed, because they were too many," the statement added.

Sixty-four people -- including women -- have been hanged since the death penalty was reinstated, following Iraq's return to sovereignty in 2004. Another 150 people are on death row awaiting execution or the outcome of their appeal, according to Iraq's Justice Ministry.

Gunmen rob industry ministry payroll

About 20 armed men arriving in four vehicles stole nearly a million dollars worth of Iraqi dinar Tuesday morning during a robbery of industry ministry workers, according to an official with Iraq's interior ministry.

The holdup occurred outside a central Baghdad bank in Karrada district shortly after the money -- about 1.2 billion Iraqi dinars, or $850,000 -- had been withdrawn to pay industry ministry workers, the official said.

Some of the robbers were dressed in camouflage uniforms similar to Iraqi Security Forces' uniforms, he said.

Just over a week ago in Baghdad, gunmen disguised as Iraqi soldiers stopped a bank truck carrying $1 million, stole it and kidnapped its four guards, according to The Associated Press.

Marine, two insurgents killed

A Marine has died during fighting in Anbar province, authorities said Tuesday.

The Marine died Monday and was assigned to 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Special Operations Capable, the military said.

The death brings to 2,950 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died since the war in Iraq began. Sixty-one have died so far this month.

Other developments

Police commandos in southern Baghdad arrested 10 to 15 employees of the central electricity authority for suspected links to "terrorists and insurgent groups," an Interior Ministry official told CNN.

The commander of a Green Zone police station and 13 police officers were arrested in connection with the escape of Iraq's former electricity minister from a Baghdad prison Sunday, Iraq's Interior Ministry told CNN. Ayham al-Sammarae's daughter speculated that he had made his way to Irbil in Kurdistan, the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday.

Gunmen dressed in plain clothes abducted in broad daylight the chief resident doctor at the Al-Alwiyah maternal hospital in central Baghdad, the same Interior Ministry official said.

Coalition forces killed two insurgents in Falluja and another in eastern Baghdad Tuesday, the military said.

Prosecutors in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial on Tuesday showed graphic video footage of dead civilians allegedly killed in chemical attacks on their villages, Reuters reported. Also produced was a memo praising a Dutch businessman for supplying banned chemical weapons used in the attacks that prosecutors allege killed more than 180,000 Kurds, Reuters reported.

Estonian lawmakers on Tuesday approved a one-year extension of the country's 40-troop military deployment in Iraq, according to AP. Poland's government has requested a one-year extension for its 900 troops, and Polish President Lech Kaczynski is expected to formally approve it, AP also reported.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Sam Dagher contributed to this report.