US troops kill 10 insurgents in al-Qaida hunt

US troops in Iraq killed 10 insurgents – three of them wearing suicide vests - in a raid today as American forces stepped up the hunt for terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

One insurgent was wounded in the pre-dawn raid at a safe house as the troops searched for “an al-Qaida terrorist leader” about 25 miles south-west of the US air base in Balad, north of Baghdad, the military said.