Iraq mounts new raid on guerillas

Iraqi forces launched a new offensive against insurgents in the town of Tal Afar near the Syrian border yesterday, and Washington said its patience with Damascus was running out over guerilla infiltrations.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari defied a $100,000 bounty placed on his head by a militant Islamic group to visit the area, while commanders said about 200 insurgents had been killed since the joint Iraqi-US operation began on Saturday.

The offensive in the northern town has dismayed some members of Iraq's Sunni Arab minority, from which the insurgency draws support, and occurs a month before a referendum on a draft constitution which is already dividing the country.

"Our patience is running out with Syria," the US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, told a news briefing at the US State Department in Washington.

"It simply must close the (guerilla) training camps. It should not allow youngsters misguided by al Qaeda, from Saudi Arabia, from Yemen, from North Africa, to fly into Damascus international airport," he said.

Asked what the conseqences would be for Syria if it did not act, Mr Khalilzad said: "I would not like to elaborate... I think they should understand what I mean."

No immediate comment was available from Syrian officials on Mr Khalilzad's comments. Iraq's Third Army Brigade said it had killed 40 insurgents in Tal Afar yesterday, bringing the guerilla death toll since Saturday to around 200.

An estimated 350-500 insurgents were in the town when Iraqi forces, backed by US troops, began the offensive.

The brigade said 21 "terrorist emirs", or senior insurgent leaders, had been captured.

"We also seized a cache of heavy weaponry, including mortars, artillery, explosives, TNT, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades," the brigade's media officer said.

Abdelaziz Jasim, the defence ministry official in charge of operations in Tal Afar, said his forces were nearly in control of western areas of the town.

"Overall 157 terrorists have been killed and 291 arrested since the beginning of the operations," Mr Jasim told a news briefing in Baghdad before the new offensive in Tal Afar. The Iraqi army lost its first soldier in the Tal Afar fighting yesterday, he said, adding six civilians had also died.

A senior Iraqi officer in Tal Afar, who gave his name only as Colonel Khalaf, said: "Under our plan, by Thursday the city should be clear and safe."

The United States and Iraq say Tal Afar is a staging post for foreign fighters and military equipment from Syria on their way to cities across central Iraq.

On Sunday, Iraq closed part of its border with Syria.