IRAQ:US and Iraqi forces sweeping through Baghdad met little resistance yesterday in an offensive which prime minister Nuri al-Maliki told US president George Bush had been a "brilliant success" so far.
Mr Maliki is under pressure to ease the sectarian violence which is threatening to plunge Iraq into all-out civil war and he renewed a pledge to Mr Bush during a video conference that troops would hunt down the militants, regardless of their sect.
Brig Qassim Moussawi, a spokesman for the Iraqi general overseeing the offensive, said that the number of violent deaths reported in the capital had fallen from 40-50 a day to 10.
The commander of US forces in Baghdad confirmed that the violence had declined but warned of tough days ahead. He said "bloodthirsty" militants were lying low, trying to get a measure of the thousands of troops sweeping across the city.
The US military said it had no indication of whether the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq had been wounded or killed after Iraqi interior ministry sources said that Abu Ayyub al-Masri had been wounded in clashes with Iraqi forces north of Baghdad.
The prime minister's office quoted Mr Maliki as telling Mr Bush: "The plan has achieved brilliant success in its early days and the government will deal firmly with any outlaw group, regardless of their affiliation."
Mr Maliki, a Shia, has frustrated his US backers with his reluctance to confront the Mahdi army, a Shia militia which Washington describes as the "greatest threat" in Iraq.
Maj-Gen Joseph Fil jnr, commander of US forces in Baghdad, said that the dip in violence was likely to be temporary as gunmen halted their attacks to assess the situation. Attacks by the Mahdi army had declined.
"They are watching us carefully," he said. "There is an air of suspense throughout the city, expectation if you will, and we believe there's no question about it - many of these extremists are lying low and watching to see what it is we do and how we do it.
"We do not believe that that is going to continue. We do expect there are going to be some very rough, difficult days ahead. This enemy, they understand lethality and they have a thirst for blood like I have never seen anywhere before."
President Jalal Talabani said on Thursday that he believed the militia's leader, anti-American Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, had ordered his top lieutenants to leave Iraq. The US military has said Sadr is in Iran, but his aides insist he is in Iraq.