US troops killed 10 insurgents in an ethnically-mixed city north of Baghdad, while 10 Iraqi troops died in two separate attacks north-east of the capital in a surge of violence following a relative lull last week.

US soldiers raided homes and farmhouses in the hostile Sunni heartland around Baghdad yesterday, detaining dozens of suspected Saddam Hussein loyalists and saying the net was closing on the deposed dictator himself.

US soldiers backed by helicopters and tanks raided homes, rounded up suspects and confiscated weapons in the town of Fallujah today – part of a nationwide campaign to root out suspected militia leaders.