More than 1,000 US troops and Iraqi forces launched Operation Sword today in a bid to crush insurgents and foreign fighters in western Iraq, making it the third major offensive in the area in recent weeks.

A suicide bombing ripped through a popular Baghdad kebab restaurant at lunchtime today, killing at least 16 people and wounding 25.

A joint US-Iraqi offensive has killed some 50 insurgents so far in battles that raged today around a blistering hot frontier town in the American military’s latest campaign to stop foreign fighters from pouring through neighbouring Syria.