Saddam Hussein’s former deputy has vowed that loyalists to the deposed dictator will continue fighting until the US withdraws from Iraq, according to an interview published today.

Heliborne US and Iraqi troops pressed their sweep through a 100-square-mile section of central Iraq today in a bid to break up a centre of insurgent resistance, the US military said. No casualties were reported on either side.

A NEPALESE Gurkha security man and an unidentified Iraqi protester were killed in riot-swept Basra yesterday, and an American soldier died of heatstroke as temperatures crept higher than 120 degrees.