Iraq operation is a success

US and Iraqi troops pressed their sweep through a 100-square-mile swath of central Iraq yesterday in a bid to break up a centre of insurgent resistance, the US military said. No resistance or casualties were reported.

“We believe we achieved tactical surprise,” Lt Col Edward Loomis, spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division, said of the day-old Operation Swarmer. He said about 40 suspects were detained, 10 of whom were later released.

The military described the operation, in which a combined Iraq-US fighting force was delivered in 50 helicopters, as the “biggest air assault” in three years. It was not an air raid, however, as the military reported no bombing or firing from the air in the offensive northeast of Samarra, a town 60 miles north of Baghdad.