US and Iraqi forces raid insurgent stronghold

Hundreds of US and Iraqi forces today launched their biggest Baghdad raid in recent weeks, moving on foot through a central neighbourhood and rounding up dozens of suspected insurgents, the military said.

About 500 members of Iraq’s police and army swept through buildings in the Rashid neighbourhood along with “several hundred” American soldiers, holding 65 suspected militants, Lt Col Clifford Kent of the US Army’s 3rd Infantry Division said.