Baghdad car bombs leave 60 dead

At least 60 people have been killed and 131 injured in two car bombs in a Shia district of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, police sources have said.

The blasts ripped through a market in the city's New Baghdad area. Two people died in another blast in Sadr City.

The attacks are the deadliest since a joint US-Iraqi security offensive was launched on Wednesday.

Earlier Iraq began reopening border crossings with Iran and Syria closed as part of the crackdown, officials said.

The borders had been closed for three days.

A large plume of smoke could be seen rising over New Baghdad, an area attacked frequently in the past, following two blasts at the open-air market.One hit vegetable stalls, and a second shortly afterwards detonated near a row of electrical goods shops.

Shortly afterwards, a car packed with explosives rammed a police checkpoint in Sadr City, killing two people and injuring 10.

It has also been revealed that two US soldiers were killed while on patrol in Baghdad on Saturday. One was shot and the other died when a grenade was thrown at his vehicle.

The blasts came a day after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Baghdad and said the security operation had got off to a good start.

On Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki described the crackdown - which has seen thousands of extra US and Iraqi troops sent to Baghdad - as a "brilliant success".

The latest attacks would seem to confirm the opinion of senior US military officials that the lull in violence in recent days was temporary and that there were difficult days ahead.