IRAQ:Iraqi security forces killed dozens of al-Qaeda militants who attacked a village in Anbar province on Wednesday during fierce clashes which lasted for much of the day.
Sunni tribal leaders are involved in a growing power struggle with Sunni al-Qaeda for control of Anbar, a vast desert province which is the heart of the Sunni Arab insurgency in Iraq.
In Baghdad, US and Iraqi troops are engaged in a security crackdown to stop bloodshed between Shia and Sunni Arabs.
US and Iraqi military officials said yesterday that troops would soon launch aggressive operations to seize weapons and hunt down gunmen in the Shia militia bastion of Sadr City, signalling a resolve to press ahead with the plan even in sensitive areas.
Dozens of loud explosions which sounded like mortar bombs rocked southern Baghdad in quick succession yesterday evening.
An Iraqi military spokesman, Brig Qassim Moussawi, said that the blasts were part of the new security offensive.
Meanwhile, interior ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf said that foreign Arabs and Afghans were among some 80 militants killed and 50 captured in the clashes in Amiriyat al-Falluja, an Anbar village, where local tribes had opposed al-Qaeda.
A police official in the area, Ahmed al-Falluji, put the number of militants killed at 70, with three police officers killed. There was no immediate verification of the numbers.
A US military spokesman in the nearby city of Falluja, Maj Jeff Pool, said that US forces were not involved in the battle but had received reports from Iraqi police that it lasted for most of Wednesday.
He could not confirm the number killed.
Witnesses said that dozens of al-Qaeda members attacked the village, prompting residents to flee and seek help from Iraqi security forces, who sent in police and soldiers.
The growing power struggle within the Sunni community in Anbar comes as US and Iraqi troops concentrate their efforts in Baghdad to stem violence between Shias and Sunnis.
American-led forces have conducted targeted raids in the teeming slum of Sadr City aimed at death squad leaders, but have held off any major sweep into the Mehdi army militia stronghold of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. - (Reuters)