Dermot McElroy remains in contention to progress to the next stage of the European Tour qualifying school at the halfway point of the first stage event at Stoke by Nayland.

US troops swept through towns and villages west of Baghdad today, arresting suspected resistance leaders and searching for banned weapons.

US forces were fighting for a fourth day today in Iraq as they tried to stamp out resistance by supporters of Saddam Hussein’s former regime.

IRAQI forces shot down a US helicopter gunship in western Iraq yesterday, just hours after US fighter jets bombed what they said was “a terrorist training camp” in central Iraq.