US troops kill 27 in ambush

US troops killed 27 Iraqis who ambushed a tank patrol yesterday, after killing at least 70 at a guerrilla camp the day before, in the bloodiest clashes since US President George W Bush declared major combat over.

The US military has launched two big operations west and north of Baghdad this week to try to root out what it says are diehard Saddam Hussein loyalists behind a recent spate of attacks on American troops. A US statement said an organised group of fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades at a 4th Infantry Division tank patrol in Balad, about 60 miles from the capital.

“The tanks returned fire, killing four of the attackers, and forcing the remainder to flee,” it said. “Tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles reinforced with AH-64 Apache helicopters pursued the enemy personnel, killing 23 of the attackers.”

No US casualties were reported in the clash. Some 4,000 troops have been scouring an area around the Tigris river northeast of Balad since Monday in “Operation Peninsula Strike”, which the military said was the biggest operation it had launched in the past six weeks. In the other big assault, launched early on Thursday, at least 70 people were killed at a “terrorist” training camp in northwest Iraq, a US military spokesman said yesterday. He said the 101st Airborne Division and special operations units were involved in the raid that began with an air strike on the camp, 90 miles northwest of Baghdad. The operation was still in progress.

The spokesman said a US helicopter was shot down on Thursday. The Apache’s two-member crew were unhurt. It was the first time a US helicopter had been shot down since the fall of Baghdad on April 9.