US encounter Al Qaida resistance in Baquba

Baghdad: Thousands of US soldiers on the offensive north of Baghdad are up against fierce resistance from hundreds of Al Qaida militants ready to fight to the death.

The US has launched one of its biggest operations since the invasion of Iraq targeting Baquba.

US military releases video of its operations against Al Qaida militants in and around the Iraqi city of Baquba.

US helicopters fired missiles at suspected Al Qaida gunmen in Iraq yesterday, killing 17 in a widening operation northeast of Baghdad aimed at dislodging them.

A top US commander, meanwhile, said the military could reduce troops by early 2008 on the back of an improving Iraqi security force.

The helicopter strike took place near the town of Khalis in Diyala province, where 10,000 US and Iraqi troops have launched a massive air and ground assault, killing 55 alleged militants since the operation began on Tuesday.

The US military said the 17 militants were killed when helicopters observed a group of armed men trying to enter the town by circumventing Iraqi police.

"The attack helicopters, armed with missiles, engaged and killed 17 Al Qaida gunmen and destroyed the vehicle they were using," a statement said.

Since Tuesday, US and Iraqi forces have been battling street by street through the provincial capital of Baquba in the biggest offensive since the November 2004 onslaught on the former rebel town of Fallujah.

In the past several months, Diyala has emerged as the second most dangerous region in Iraq after Baghdad, with Baquba as the epicentre of sectarian and insurgent violence.

With the Baghdad security crackdown operational since February, insurgents have carried out increasing attacks against the coalition and Iraqi troops and civilians in a belt extending around the capital, the US military says.

Arming tribes

Apart from a series of military sweeps targeting insurgents in Iraq, the US military is also arming local Sunni Arab tribes that have agreed to fight alongside US forces against the Al Qaida-led insurgency. After expressing reservations about the strategy in an interview with Newsweek magazine last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki yesterday gave his cautious support to the US tactic.

"The government does not fear the arming of tribes but fears the chaos and disorder and the appearance of new militias," a statement from Al Maliki's office said. "It is essential that all of these activities are under Iraqi control and done with government supervision. The government refuses to deploy these kinds of projects in a context that pits Sunni tribes against Shiite tribes."

Meanwhile, Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno, a top US commander in Iraq, said US troops in Iraq could see a reduction by early 2008 as local security forces grow stronger.

"If you ask me today, I think, by the spring or earlier, they [the Iraqis] will be ready to take on a larger portion of their security, which means, I think, potentially, we could have a decision to reduce our forces," he said.