U.S. troops pulled out of checkpoints around Shiite militia's stronghold of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday hours after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered them to withdraw.

Earlier in the day, al-Maliki ordered the removal of all checkpoints and roadblocks on entrances of Sadr City, which is believed to be a bastion of the Mehdi Army, a Shiite militia group led by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

"The prime minister, as the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi armed forces, has decided to lift the blockades of entrances of Sadr City and other areas of Baghdad," al-Maliki's Office said in a statement.

The statement said that the barricades would be lifted by 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT), but could be returned after dark during Baghdad's nightly curfew or when specific operations were underway to seize "terrorists."

U.S. and Iraqi troops had blocked entrances of the vast neighborhood of Sadr City during the past week, looking for a U.S. soldier of Iraqi origin who was allegedly abducted by militias.

Witnesses said U.S. troops disappeared from the checkpoints before the deadline and supporters of al-Sadr began to celebrate on the streets, hailing the end of a "barbaric siege."

The withdrawal came amid mounting violence by Iraqi insurgents.

On Monday, the U.S. military announced the deaths of two soldiers in fighting in Baghdad, bringing to 103 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq in October, the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq this year.

As the U.S. death toll hit record high this month, violence against civilians rages across the war-torn country.

In the morning rush hour on Tuesday, four people, including one policeman, were killed and 11 others wounded in two separate bomb attacks in Baghdad, a police source said.

At about 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT), a car bomb targeting a wedding convoy in northeastern Baghdad killed 15 people and injured 19 others.

In addition, unidentified gunmen attacked a convoy of some 16 minibuses north of the capital, kidnapping 42 people, including tribal leaders and prominent persons from two Shiite towns who were heading to Baghdad to meet senior Iraqi officials, a spokesman of the Joint Coordination Center of Salahudin province told Xinhua.

Source: Xinhua