Dozens of al Qaeda killed in Anbar -- Iraq police

BAGHDAD, March 1 (Reuters) Iraqi security forces killed dozens of al Qaeda militants who attacked a village in western Anbar province yesterday, during fierce clashes that lasted much of the day, police officials today said.

Sunni tribal leaders are involved in a growing power struggle with Sunni al Qaeda for control of Anbar, a vast desert province that is the heart of the Sunni Arab insurgency in Iraq.

In Baghdad, US and Iraqi troops are engaged in a security crackdown to stop bloodshed between Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs.

US and Iraqi military officials said troops would soon launch aggressive operations to seize weapons and hunt gunmen in the Shi'ite militia bastion of Sadr City, signalling resolve to press ahead with the plan even in sensitive areas.

In Stockholm, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said there would be a major announcement in a few days to reintroduce 1,000 mid-ranking officers from the former Iraqi military into the new army as a ''sign of reconciliation''.

Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf said foreign Arabs and Afghans were among some 80 militants killed and 50 captured in the clashes in Amiriyat al Falluja, an Anbar village where local tribes had opposed al Qaeda.

A police official in the area, Ahmed al-Falluji, put the number of militants killed at 70, with three police officers killed.

There was no immediate verification of the number.

A US military spokesman in the nearby city of Falluja, Major Jeff Pool, said US forces were not involved in the battle but had received reports from Iraqi police that it lasted most of yesterday. He could not confirm the number killed.

Another police source in Falluja put the figure at dozens.

''Because it was so many killed we can't give an exact number for the death toll,'' the police source told Reuters.

Witnesses said dozens of al Qaeda members attacked the village, prompting residents to flee and seek help from Iraqi security forces, who sent in police and soldiers.

SADR CITY The growing power struggle within the Sunni community in Anbar comes as US and Iraqi troops concentrate efforts in Baghdad to stem violence between Shi'ites and Sunnis that is pushing the country to civil war.

American-led forces have conducted targeted raids in the teeming slum of Sadr City aimed at death squad leaders, but have held off any major sweep into the Mehdi Army militia stronghold of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

But US and Iraqi troops are gearing up to set up joint checkpoints in Sadr City and conduct large-scale, door-to-door operations on houses and buildings, signalling a significant escalation in the plan, officers in eastern Baghdad said.

Details of the plan emerged during a meeting of senior US and Iraqi military commanders today in Sadr City, which was also attended by the city's mayor.

Sipping mint tea in a crammed police station as four helicopter gunships hovered overhead, they agreed to set up a joint security station in Sadr City in a few days.

''We have conducted special operations in Sadr City for some months but this will be the first time we will launch full-scale operations there and the first time we will have a permanent presence there,'' said Colonel Billy Don Farris, coalition forces commander for the Sadr City and Adhamiya neighbourhoods.

In Anbar, where some 4,000 extra US troops are headed, a car bomb targeting a convoy of vehicles carrying guests celebrating the wedding of a policemen killed five people and wounded 10 in Falluja, a separate police source said.

The number of Iraqi civilian deaths in February was the lowest for four months, figures from Iraq's Interior, Defence and Health Ministries showed. But at 1,645 civilian deaths, the figures provided by ministry officials are still far above the 545 recorded during February 2006.

Reuters SY VP0017