A US offensive aimed at uprooting al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents in western Iraq before next week’s constitutional referendum killed 29 militants, including 20 who died when warplanes bombed an abandoned hotel they had commandeered, the military said today.

AL-QAIDA in Iraq has urged supporters to intensify attacks on US and Iraqi forces during the holy month of Ramadan, which began yesterday, and called for a boycott of next week’s constitutional referendum.

The US military today launched a major offensive in a cluster of cities in the Euphrates River valley aimed at insurgents who were using the area as a safe haven and who had killed 20 Marines there in August.

US forces launched airstrikes today in a town near the Syrian border in western Iraq, part of a three-day offensive against insurgents that has killed at least 36 militants since the fighting began, officials said.

US forces killed at least eight insurgents while sweeping through a village near the Syrian border in an offensive aimed at rooting out al-Qaida militants in the region, the military said today.