Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, March 30 (Xinhua) -- More than 20 people were killed and wounded when U.S. troops pounded a village east of Baghdad early on Friday, a well-informed police source said.

    "U.S. troops, including aircraft, pounded the village of Sha'ourah Wa Jider in an area between Baghdad and Diyala province, killing and wounding more than 20 people," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    There was no further information available about the incident,the source said.

    The U.S. military did not confirmed the incident.

    The incident came one day after carnage that claimed the lives of a total of 107 people and injuring 131 others in and around Baghdad, defying the ongoing security crack down designed to curb violence in the warn-ravaged country.

    Late on Thursday, the Iraqi official television quoted Minister of Health Ali al-Shimmary as saying that the toll rose 72 killed and up to 100 others wounded in the suicide bomb attack in the Shalal popular market in the al-Shaab neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad.

    Since Feb. 14, U.S. forces and Iraqi government have launched the last-ditch security crackdown in the capital to prevent the country from spiraling toward a full-scale civil war between Shiite majority and Sunni minority.