US forces kill 60 militants in Iraq
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Your support makes all the difference.The US military said yesterday that it had killed 60 militants during a week-long offensive in northern Iraq against al-Qa'ida which has proved a resilient foe and has resisted previous attempts to drive it from the region.
The offensive in four northern provinces and Baghdad's southern suburbs was launched on 8 January by the US military, which regards al-Qa'ida as the single greatest threat to Iraq's security and has blamed it for an upsurge in suicide bombings.
In Baghdad, gunmen killed appeals court judge Amir Jawdat al-Naeib as he drove to work yesterday. Naeib's driver was also killed. Militants have frequently targeted judges, academics, other professionals and their families.
The new offensive is seen as part of the US strategy of reducing violence to give Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government time to cement the security gains with political progress towards national reconciliation.
The military said in a statement that US and Iraqi forces had killed 60 militants, detained 193 and found 79 weapons caches containing thousands of rounds of ammunition, explosives and home-made bombs during the offensive in northern Iraq.
Troops had found one cache in an underground bunker complex with several rooms during operations in Diyala, a volatile, religiously mixed province north of Baghdad.
But the fighting has not been one-sided. Police said seven policemen were killed when the house they were searching blew up in the town of Buhriz just south of Baquba, Diyala's capital.
Six US soldiers were killed in Diyala last week when a house booby-trapped with explosives collapsed on top of them. It was the single greatest loss of life by US troops so far during the operation.
A similar offensive targeting al-Qa'ida in Diyala last summer failed to drive out the Sunni Islamist group because many militants escaped before the well-flagged operation.
A series of US and Iraqi operations against al-Qa'ida in the second half of 2007 largely drove the group from the capital and western Anbar province, and they are now regrouping in the north, US officials say.
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