US steps up raids on militant Iraqi stronghold

US AND Iraqi troops launched an operation in western Iraq yesterday to clear insurgents from a suspected safe area used to make car and roadside bombs.

The campaign came as US President George W Bush defended his Iraq policy in a major speech, saying more Iraqi security forces are increasingly taking the lead in battle but that "this will take time and patience".

About 1,500 marines from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, 500 US soldiers and 500 Iraqi soldiers were taking part in Operation Iron Hammer near Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad, a US Marine statement said. The forces would concentrate efforts in the Hai Al Becker region.

"The Hai Al Becker region is suspected to be an al-Qaida in Iraq safe area and base of operations for the manufacture of car bombs, roadside bombs," the military said.

Meanwhile, in the central town of Baqouba, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a minibus, killing nine construction workers and wounding two, police said.

Following a new wave of kidnappings in which five Westerners were abducted since the weekend, German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed her government will "not let ourselves be blackmailed" by those who took a German hostage.

Kidnappers have threatened to kill archaeologist Susanne Osthoff and her Iraqi driver, kidnapped on Friday, unless Germany halts all contacts with the Iraqi government. German TV showed images of what appeared to be Osthoff and her driver blindfolded beside masked militants.

The other four abducted Westerners were members of Christian Peacemaker Teams, a group that has had activists in Iraq since October 2002. The group listed those abducted as Tom Fox, 54, from Virginia, US; Norman Kember, 74, of London; and James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, of Canada.

On Tuesday, al-Jazeera broadcast video of the four men held by a previously unknown group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. The group claimed the four were spies using the cover of Christian peace activists.

Christian Peacemaker Teams said their workers were working against the occupation of Iraq.

"We are some of the few internationals left in Iraq who are telling the truth about what is happening to the Iraqi people. We hope that we can continue to do this work and we pray for the speedy release of our beloved teammates."

Mr Loney, a community worker, was leading the Christian group's delegation in Iraq.

German newspaper Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung reported that Ms Osthoff had received a kidnap threat last summer from extremists linked to al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and that US soldiers brought her from Mosul to Baghdad for her own safety.

Meanwhile, Belgian authorities said they detained 14 suspects with links to a terrorist network that sent volunteers to Iraq, including a Belgian woman who allegedly carried out a suicide attack in Baghdad.

The dawn raids followed reports a Belgian woman blew herself up in a Baghdad attack on November 9.

She was 38, her first name was Mireille and came from a middle class background in Charleroi, said an official close to the investigation, but had converted to fundamentalist Islam through her Moroccan husband.