US AND Iraqi forces arrested suspected suicide bombers and others during targeted sweeps in the 72 hours leading up to last weekend’s provincial elections, the top US commander Maj Gen Jeffery Hammond said yesterday.

INSURGENTS lured police to a house in west Baghdad with an anonymous tip about a rebel hideout and then set off explosives, killing at least 29 people and wounding 18, in the latest deadly strike against Iraqi security forces.

US forces launched a new offensive in Iraq’s so called triangle of death today while rebels ambushed an elite police unit, killing 29 people in a massive explosion.