BAGHDAD (AFP) - The security crackdown in Baghdad entered its second day as authorities sought to restore stability in the violence-plagued Iraqi capital.

More than 50,000 Iraqi and US forces descended on the streets of Baghdad Wednesday as part of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's new security plan for the city which has seen dozens of people killed each day in bombings and shootings.

The plan, Operation Forward Together, is one of the largest since the March 2003 invasion by US-led troops and Maliki called upon all political groups, religious leaders and ordinary Iraqis to support it...