US jets bomb suspected rebel positions in Iraq
The US military has reacted forcefully to an upsurge in guerrilla activity in central and northern Iraq.
On Monday, six insurgents were killed in gun battles and 99 suspects were reportedly detained in a series of sweeps.
Near Baqouba, 30 miles north-east of Baghdad, jets and Apache helicopter gun-ships yesterday blasted abandoned buildings, walls and trees along a road where attacks have been so common that troops nicknamed it RPG Alley, after the rocket-propelled grenades used by insurgents.
As part of the bombardment in the Baqouba area, fighter-bombers dropped 500 pound bombs and battle tanks fired their 120mm guns at suspected ambush sites.
Meanwhile, F-16 fighter aircraft dropped two bombs on insurgent targets near the town of Samara, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, the US military said.
In northern Iraq, guerrillas detonated a roadside bomb, wounding two soldiers.
In a political blow to Iraq's US-led administration, Marco Calamai, a special counsellor of the Coalition Provisional Authority, denounced the organisation.
Mr Calamai said that he had become completely disillusioned with the US-led authority headed by Paul Bremer, and that only an interim authority headed by the United Nations could turn things around.
"The provisional authority simply doesn't work," Mr Calamai said. "It's neither fish nor fowl. Reconstruction projects that were promised and financed have had practically no results."
In Baghdad, dozens of loud explosions were heard after sundown in what appeared to be a US operation against Iraqi insurgents.
The explosions appeared to be heavy weapons firing.
Three American soldiers died yesterday one in an ambush on a patrol, another by a roadside bomb and a third from a non-hostile gunshot wound.
In Mosul, two soldiers on a foot patrol were wounded when a bomb exploded near them at about 6.50 am local time.
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