US troops kill 75 insurgents

American forces in Iraq have killed around 75 militants during the past 24 hours in a counter-insurgency offensive near the Syrian border, US military officials said today.

The offensive, in a desert area of Anbar province north of the Euphrates river, was targeting a sanctuary for foreign insurgents and a smuggling route, the officials said.

The brief statement did not mention when the offensive by marines, sailors, infantry and backed up by US air support, had begun, or whether there had been any American casualties.

Today's Chicago Tribune reported that more than 1,000 US troops, supported by fighter jets and helicopter gunships, yesterday attacked villages in and around Obeidi, a city near the Euphrates river not far from the Syrian border.

The report, by a journalist embedded with the US forces, said the offensive "was seeking to uproot a persistent insurgency in an area that American intelligence indicated has become a haven for foreign fighters flowing in from Syria".

It said the offensive was expected to last for several days.

Earlier today, a wave of attacks by insurgents, many of them targeting Iraqi security forces and civilians, continued in Baghdad. A suicide car bomb killed three Iraqis, police said.

US forces also detained 13 suspected militants, including one who may have plotted an attempt to kill former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi, US officials said. The US military announced that it had conducted several raids in and around Baghdad and detained suspected insurgents, some armed with rocket-propelled grenades.

Two of the suspects were captured in a raid aimed at capturing the leader of a terror cell believed to have plotted the attempt to kill Mr Allawi on April 20, the military said. Mr Allawi escaped unhurt when a suicide car bomb exploded near a police checkpoint as his convoy drove him home.

Meanwhile, US efforts to rebuild Iraq are being hampered by management failures and security problems, it was reported today.

The Wall Street Journal said that a comprehensive US audit, expected to be published later today, will also highlight incidences of apparent corruption, fraud and embezzlement.

The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, is due to outline challenges facing the $18.4bn (£9.8bn) rebuilding effort. The audit also says that at least 276 civilians working on US government-funded projects have been killed in Iraq, with another 2,582 wounded, the paper reported.