US AND Iraqi troops launched an operation in western Iraq yesterday to clear insurgents from a suspected safe area used to make car and roadside bombs.

IRAQI rebels combined hi-tech with low-tech yesterday when using donkey carts as launchers in a missile attack on the oil ministry and two Baghdad hotels.

More than a dozen rockets fired from donkey carts slammed into Iraq’s Oil Ministry and two hotels today – in brazen coordinated strikes at Baghdad’s most heavily protected civilian sites.

The US Air Force used some of the largest weapons in its inventory to attack targets in central Iraq as part of the escalating crackdown on suspected guerrilla strongholds.

Strong explosions thundered through central Baghdad after sundown tonight in what appeared to be part of a US military operation against rebels in the capital.