Forty-two al-Qaida hostages freed in raid

US forces raided an al-Qaida hide-out north-east of Baghdad today and freed 42 Iraqis imprisoned inside, including some who had been tortured and suffered broken bones, a senior U.S. military official said.

The raid was part of a three-month-old security crackdown that included the deployment of 3,000 more US troops to Diyala, a violent province north of the capital that has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks, said Major General William Caldwell, the top US military spokesman in Iraq.