Fear for Iraq crackdown as 12 U.S. soldiers die

Twelve US soldiers were killed today in one of the deadliest days suffered by American forces in Iraq since the start of the war. The troops, engaged in "combat operations" outside Baghdad, were killed in two roadside attacks.

Six soldiers died when a bomb exploded near their vehicle as they patrolled the Salahuddin province north of the Iraqi capital. Three other soldiers were wounded in the blast.

Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit is the capital of the province, a hotbed for anti-US militancy.

In a separate attack, three more US troops were killed and one wounded by a roadside bomb in the Diyala area.

All were assigned to Task Force Lightning, a group attached to the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade that has been at the forefront of the anti-insurgency operations.

More than 3,170 US troops have died in Iraq since the British and American invasion four years ago.

The deaths will raise concerns about the effectiveness of the muchpublicised security crackdown in Baghdad aimed at stemming the rising tide of sectarian violence.

George Bush announced at the start of the year an extra 18,000 US troops would be sent to Iraq in a bid to stabilise a country on the brink of civil war. The Americans have been following British tactics in Basra where forces systematically went through the city, district by district, to root out the insurgents.

But rebel forces are understood to have moved outside the capital and US military commanders expressed concerns that insurgents could step up attacks in other parts of Iraq.

Today's deaths come the day after a car bomb in central Baghdad's historic booksellers' district of Mutanabbi left 30 people dead and 65 wounded. The blast was the first major attack since a female suicide bomber killed 40 people at a Baghdad college on 25 February.

The US military says the increased patrols have reduced the number of death squad killings. But there appears to have been no diminishment in the number of car bombings.

Days ago, more than 1,000 Iraqi and US soldiers launched a crackdown on insurgents in Sadr City, a Shia stronghold in Baghdad. But no weapons were found and no suspected militants detained.

Iraq's prime minister Nouri al-Maliki has urged insurgents to put down their arms, offering them an amnesty, but vowing that a security offensive would "cover every inch" of the war-torn country.