Air strikes kill 40 insurgents in Iraq, US says

BAGHDAD - US air strikes killed an estimated 40 insurgents in western Iraq yesterday, the American military said.

Seven precision-guided US air strikes on the outskirts of the town of Karabilah killed the insurgents who were stopping vehicles at gunpoint and threatening Iraqi civilians, said a US military statement.

The military said there were no US casualties when Marines engaged large groups of insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and AK-47 assault rifles.

The US military said there were no reports of civilian casualties. It was not immediately possible to confirm the insurgent casualty figures independently.

While US forces struck guerrillas in their heartland of Anbar province, a former Iraqi police commando blew himself up in a failed bid to assassinate the leader of the anti-insurgent Wolf Brigade in Baghdad, Major General Mohammed Qureishi, killing three other policemen in the attempt, the Interior Minister said.

The motive was unclear but the mainly Shi'ite Muslim force has been at the centre of controversy about aggressive methods and accusations of a sectarian "dirty war" on minority Sunnis.

In an internet claim of responsibility, the Sunni insurgent group linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda said: "Our brother would not accept the humiliation of ... Sunni men and women."

Body parts littered the compound near the Interior Ministry which houses the Wolf Brigade. One officer was hurt. Al Qaeda in Iraq, responsible for dozens of suicide bombings, named the attacker as Abu Mohammed al-Dulaimi, apparently a Sunni Iraqi.

The force, set up by Qureishi last year under formal Interior Ministry control, comprises hundreds of commandos drawn mainly from poor Shi'ite districts of the capital. With their distinctive wolf's head insignia, they have become folk heroes to some Shi'ites but an object of fear and mistrust for Sunnis.

The US Council on Foreign Relations suggested last week it was "the most feared and effective commando unit in Iraq".

- REUTERS