Almost 300 suspected insurgents have been detained in the largest joint US-Iraqi military offensive in Baghdad, the military said today.

Eight American Marines were killed in fighting west of Baghdad today, and a car bomb killed at least seven people in an attack on an Arab television station in the capital.

US forces launched airstrikes against suspected militant bases in Fallujah and carried out probing attacks on the city’s outskirts, as they prepared for a major operation in the insurgent bastion that has become the symbol of Iraqi resistance.

US administrator Paul Bremer says it could take more than 15 months to hold elections in Iraq – a much longer timeframe than the country’s Shi’ite Muslim clergy and some political leaders seem prepared to accept.