US and Iraqi forces detain more suspects

Iraqi and US forces detained 143 suspected insurgents, taking the number of people rounded up in a two-day offensive in western Baghdad to 428, the military has said.

Operation Squeeze Play, the largest ever joint Iraqi-US campaign in Baghdad, was launched on Sunday to catch suspected militants responsible for attacking the Abu Ghraib US-detention facility and the road linking downtown to the international airport.

“Abu Ghraib has been a trafficking area for former Baath Party terrorists and the (Abu Musab) al-Zarqawi terrorist network between Baghdad and (western city of) Fallujah,” a military statement said.

Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi heads the al Qaida in Iraq terrorist group, which has claimed responsibility for multiple bombings, assassinations and kidnappings.

Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Clifford Kent said residents in the Abu Ghraib area had backed the operation, which is continuing, by pointing out locations where suspected terrorists had been hiding.

“Iraqi people want these terrorists gotten rid of and they’re doing something about it,” Kent said.

The military said 128 suspected insurgents were captured on the operation’s second day, while 285 were rounded up on the opening day.

Seven battalions of Iraqi army and police, numbering more than 2,000 men, backed by US military forces have conducted the operation.

Separately, Iraqi army soldiers captured nine terror suspects today in numerous raids in the Iraqi capital, including a man who allegedly planned and conducted terrorist attacks.

Iraqi forces also confiscated Iraqi currency to the value of £311,000 and six passports.

Four other men were detained in another location in connection with “terrorist activities,” the statement said, including a leader of a little known terror group called the Islamic Secret Army.