Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Insurgents shot dead a police officer and bombed a police commando patrol, killing a commando member in separate attacks in Baghdad on Sunday, a well-informed police source said.

    "Unknown armed men gunned down Captain Hatam Othman, an aide for Baghdad chief police, while driving his car in the Hai al-Amil neighborhood in southwestern the capital," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    In separate incident, a roadside bomb struck a police commando patrol in the Saidiyah district in southern Baghdad, the source said.

    The attack damaged a police vehicle, killing a commando member and wounding three others aboard, the source added. In earlier car bomb attack of Baiyaa neighborhood in southern Baghdad, the death toll rose to 35 and 80 others, the source said, citing latest police report.

    Baiyaa's midday car bombing ripped through the Eshreen Street,a commercial area, which residents said that parts of it are still open although others are almost closed after several days of clashes between Sunni and Shiite militia.

    The sectarian clashes forced many families of the mixed Shiite and Sunni neighborhood to leave their homes.

    Violence and sectarian clashes continue in several parts of the capital despite the 11-week-old security crackdown staged by the U.S. and Iraqi forces with an aim of putting rampant violence under control.