The Interior Ministry has not given a date for the start of the Diyala crackdown but says U.S. forces, which have been conducting operations there since January, will take part.
DEVASTATION
A witness described devastation in Baquba.
"An explosion shook everything. I saw chunks of flesh scattered everywhere and some recruits were calling for their friends," said wounded recruit Nadhim Hameed, 19.
"There were people on the ground with blood stains on them - it was chaos. Then another bomb exploded and I woke up here."
Reuters television footage showed men and women weeping over bodies wrapped in white shrouds at a local hospital. Medical staff rushed around with stretchers to treat the wounded.
The Diyala crackdown will be the latest Iraqi-led offensive aimed at stamping government authority on areas once in the hands of Sunni Arab insurgents or Shi'ite militias.
Other operations have targeted Shi'ite militias in the southern provinces of Basra and Maysan.
Falls in violence are due to a U.S. troop buildup, a rebellion by Sunni Arab tribal leaders against al Qaeda and a truce by anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
That has focused more attention on national reconciliation and a series of laws Washington hopes will bridge the divide between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs.
In a blow for attempts to hold provincial elections in the next few months, parliament failed to approve a draft electoral law on Tuesday because of disagreement over what to do about voting in the disputed oil rich city of Kirkuk, lawmakers said.
It was unclear when parliament would convene again to consider the draft, which has to be passed so the electoral commission can prepare for polls seen as vital to fostering national reconciliation.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said the elections would be held on October 1, although parliamentarians have previously said that would be unlikely given many preparations for the vote could not be undertaken until the law was passed.
The elections are seen by Washington as a way to boost reconciliation by giving factions that boycotted the last polls in 2005, especially Sunni Arabs, a chance to claim a stake in the political process at the local level.
