Clashes broke out between insurgents and Iraqi security forces and a car bomb killed at least two people in Baghdad on Wednesday as the government launched a security clampdown to root out al Qaeda militants.

Iraqi demonstrators throw a tyre as they set fire to a small entrance of Iran's consulate in Basra, 550 km (341 miles) south of Baghdad June 14, 2006. A crowd of demonstrators chanted slogans outside the consulate and set fire to a reception area of the building during a protest against an Iranian satellite station, accusing it of insulting a Shi'ite cleric in Iraq. [Reuters]

Gunmen carrying automatic rifles blocked roads with stones and tree trunks and exchanged fire with Iraqi troops in Adhamiya, a Sunni insurgent stronghold that is one of Baghdad's most dangerous areas, a Reuters reporter at the scene said.

Civilians fled the area but there were no immediate reports of casualties. Three Iraqi army tanks were dispatched to Adhamiya. The clashes subsided later on Wednesday.

In northern Baghdad, a car bomb targeting a police patrol killed two people and wounded seven. A Reuters photographer who was 10 meters (yards) from the blast saw a man and a teenager burning amid wreckage after the bomb caused a big fireball.

The clampdown, which included extra checkpoints and Iraqi security patrols backed by tanks and armored vehicles, came a day after President Bush met new Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is under pressure to rein in violence.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have carried out several such operations in the past but have failed to stem the bloodshed that has killed tens of thousands since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and pushed Iraq toward civil war.

Iraqi officials said the operation would involve more than 40,000 Iraqi and U.S.-led forces as part of a sweep to put further pressure on al Qaeda in Iraq following the killing of its leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi last week in a U.S. air strike.

In a surprise visit to Iraq, Bush, who faces low popularity ratings over a war that has killed nearly 2,500 U.S. troops, told Maliki the fate and future of Iraq was "in your hands."

"The decisions you and your cabinet make will determine as to whether or not your country succeeds, can govern itself, can defend itself, can sustain itself," Bush told Maliki, whose self-styled government of national unity took office last month.

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