Iraqi soldiers inspect a car at a checkpoint in central Baghdad, Saturday. Iraqi authorities have ordered a 12-hour curfew in Baghdad and three surrounding provinces coinciding with Sunday's expected announcement of a verdict in the trial of former leader Saddam Hussein.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. and Iraqi forces set up extra checkpoints in Baghdad, boosted patrols and blocked traffic across a main bridge in advance of Sunday's expected guilty verdict against Saddam Hussein.

The ousted dictator has been on trial for murder and crimes against humanity and could get the death penalty. Violence is already running high, with police finding the bodies of 87 torture victims throughout the capital between 6 a.m. Thursday and 6 p.m. Friday.

A verdict is expected to set off further bloodshed, underscoring the trial's failure to bring reconciliation to a country fractured ever deeper along sectarian lines.

An aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said authorities are clamping a 12-hour curfew on Baghdad and three surrounding provinces starting at 6 a.m. Sunday. Not just cars, but people will be barred from the streets.

The curfew will cover all of Baghdad province, Salahuddin province, which includes Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, and the Sunni insurgent hotbeds of Diyala and Anbar provinces.

Leave for all military personnel has been canceled indefinitely and vacationing soldiers recalled to active duty.

New checkpoints sprang up around main roads, including within the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses Iraqi government offices and the U.S. and British embassies. Larger-than-usual numbers of policemen and U.S. troops patrolled city streets, while U.S. Army Stryker armored vehicles blocked traffic on both sides of the al-Jumhuriyah Bridge, one of the capital's most heavily guarded because it carries traffic past the Green Zone.

"We received orders to tighten security measures and to use any available policemen to tighten the security," police Lt. Ali Abbas said.

Any violence would be met with a stern response, said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, which commands the police.

"We warn anyone who intends to exploit this event that our response will be tough and severe," police Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf told the Associated Press without elaborating.

Many of Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs are predicting a firestorm if the ex-president is sentenced to death. On the other hand, majority Shiites, who were persecuted under Saddam but now dominate the government, are likely to be enraged if he escapes the gallows.

Setting the tone, al-Maliki, a Shiite, said late last month that he expects "this criminal tyrant will be executed." He said that would help break the will of Saddam followers in the largely Sunni Arab-led insurgency against U.S. forces and their Iraqi government allies.

Saddam and seven co-defendants — including a half-brother — have been on trial since Oct. 19, 2005, for their alleged roles in the deaths of about 150 Shiites in the town of Dujail after an assassination attempt against the president in 1982.

A second trial against Saddam — for alleged genocide against the Kurds — began in August and more charges are expected to follow. It is unclear whether those cases would move forward if Saddam is condemned to hang.