Meanwhile

Over there:

BAGHDAD, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Three car bombs killed 24 people and wounded scores in Baghdad on Monday, and gunmen attacked two Sunni areas, clashing with residents and setting houses on fire.

The violence came on a day when the military command centre that will oversee a planned offensive by Iraqi and U.S. troops in the city was due to become operational. U.S. officers said on Sunday that the crackdown would begin "soon thereafter".

In the worst blast on Monday, a car bomb targeting a petrol station in the religiously mixed southern neighbourhood of Saidiya killed 10 people and wounded 62, while eight people were killed and 40 wounded when a car bomb exploded in a garage.

A car bomb exploded near a childrens' hospital in Andalus square in central Baghdad, killing six and wounding nine.