Dozens of insurgents captured in Iraq as violence kills at least 29

AMERICAN and Iraqi troops swept the oil-rich region of Kirkuk for suspected insurgents and captured dozens, while drive-by shootings, roadside bombings and sectarian violence killed at least 29 people in Iraq yesterday.

A bombing outside a Sunni Muslim mosque after Friday prayers killed five worshippers and wounded 15 people in the city of Khalis, north-east of

Baghdad, the army said.

Gunmen in vehicles killed three policemen in west Baghdad and three power station workers headed to their jobs in Taji, just north of the capital, police said.

In southern Baghdad's Saydiyah district, gunmen killed four pastry shop employees, police said. Nearby, a roadside bomb killed a policeman.

Retaliatory killings between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims have become increasingly common in the capital since the February 22 bombing of an important Shi'ite shrine that unleashed the continuing rash of sectarian murders. Police said they found 13 bodies, blindfolded and shot in the Binok, Kazimiyah and Sadr City neighbourhoods.

Mortar rounds fell on homes in south Baghdad and the northern city of Tal Afar, wounding about 10 people, mainly children.

Meanwhile, soldiers of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division joined Iraqi troops in a sweep of five villages outside the city of Kirkuk, 290 kilometres north of Baghdad. Forty suspected insurgents were picked up in Hawija, police said.

A day earlier, a US military spokesperson asserted that major violence is largely confined to just three of Iraq's 18 provinces, where fighting raged on Thursday with at least 58 people killed in execution-style slayings, bombings and gun battles.

Sunni insurgents hit a major police and jail facility for a third straight day Thursday this time with a suicide car bombing that killed 25 in central Baghdad. The attacker struck outside the Interior Ministry Major Crimes unit, killing 10 civilians and 15 policemen, authorities said.

As insurgent forces raised the stakes with the attacks, the US military said late Thursday it was in the second day of an operation with Iraqi soldiers "to disrupt anti-Iraqi forces and to find and destroy terrorist caches in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad".

The military statement said 1,400 personnel were involved in the operation termed Northern Lights and had captured "two persons of high-value interest and 16 suspected terrorists". Two large weapons caches also were discovered.

Abu Ghraib, also the site of the infamous prison, is where US and British forces stormed a house Thursday and freed three Christian peace activists held hostage since November 26.