Foreign contractors killed, US pursues offensive

BAGHDAD - Roadside bombs killed nearly a dozen people in Iraq, as US-led forces launched the latest phase of an offensive, killing 37 insurgents near the Syrian border, in a bid to secure the nation for December polls.

In the first roadside bomb attack, two South African private security contractors were killed by a roadside bomb near the heavily fortified "Green Zone" in central Baghdad, the US embassy spokesman's office said.

Three others, an American, an Iraqi, and another South African, were wounded in the attack, two of them seriously. Earlier Iraqi police had said three people were killed.

The contractors work for Dyncorp, a US-based firm that has a range of security operations in Iraq, including employing Westerners to protect convoys and reconstruction projects.

In other violence, six civilians died when a similar roadside explosive device hit two passenger coaches in Ramadi, a violent city about 100 km west of the Iraqi capital.

Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province, a vast Sunni Arab region that is a focal point of the insurgency against the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government and its US backers.

Sectarian tensions are overshadowing campaigning for December 15 parliamentary elections, where the once-dominant Sunni minority is expected to vote in large numbers for the first time after boycotting the first post-Saddam Hussein vote in January.

The blast near the Green Zone, which could be heard several kilometres away and sent a thick plume of black smoke into the air, was near a compound housing the Iranian embassy, but there were no reports of injuries or damage to the mission.

Police said the attack targeted several sports utility vehicles, commonly used by the military, police and security forces to transport local and foreign officials and contractors.

Another three people were killed and four more were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in a busy commercial street in eastern Baghdad, police said.

Roadside bombs, usually used to target US and Iraqi patrols, are the biggest killer of US troops in Iraq, accounting for nearly 40 per cent of all deaths.

Further west in Anbar, US and Iraqi forces began the latest phase of their operations to quell insurgents and foreign fighters as they attempt to make Iraq secure for next month's poll. Militants have threatened to disrupt the balloting.

After a series of air strikes, US and Iraqi troops moved into the town of Ubaydi, on the banks of the Euphrates river, 20 km from the border with Syria, as part of Operation Steel Curtain which began last week.

"Five targets were struck by coalition air strikes resulting in an estimated 37 insurgents killed," the US military said.

"The insurgents were engaging coalition forces with small arms fire at the time of the strikes," it said.

About 2,500 US and 1,000 Iraqi troops had already swept through the towns of Qusayba and Karabila in their house-to-house battle with insurgents, many of whom the military say are foreign fighters using the porous border with Syria.

The growing toll of US dead -- more than 2,060 troops have died since the war began -- has fuelled opposition at home, with President George W. Bush's ratings near record lows.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's key ally in Iraq, said Britain could well start pulling some of its 8,000 troops out next year, although he said that would have to depend on how the security situation developed.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani also believes British troops could begin leaving the country in about a year because Iraqi security forces, which now number more than 180,000, even if most are poorly trained, would be ready to replace them.

"I believe ... that after the end of 2006 it will be possible for the British troops to begin a step-by-step withdrawal," Talabani said through an interpreter at a news conference with Austrian President Heinz Fischer in Vienna.

The latest Anbar offensive follows several others in the past six months, including before last month's referendum on a new constitution which Sunnis narrowly failed to vote down.

Sunni politicians have spoken out against the military operations, saying such offensives cause civilian casualties.

The military says civilians who fled their homes during the fighting are being kept safe.

- REUTERS