US and Iraqi troops swept into the insurgent stronghold of Tal Afar early today, conducting house-to-house searches and battering down walls with armoured vehicles in a second bid to clean the city of militant fighters.

INSURGENTS assassinated a senior Iraqi army commander yesterday and staged two suicide car bombings, killing 15 people, in violence that politicians fear may deepen if a new government is not formed soon.

The top US general in the Middle East warned community leaders that the military will use stern measures unless they curb attacks against coalition forces, according to an Iraqi who attended the meeting.

THE Pentagon mobilised 15,000 fresh troops for duty in Iraq as the US military announced yesterday it had found large caches of weapons, including missiles, near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.