60 killed in anti-Qaeda sweep in Iraq: US military

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Some 60 suspected militants were killed and 193 arrested in the first week of Operation Iron Harvest, a major sweep against Al-Qaeda jihadists in four Iraqi provinces, the US military said Monday.

At least 79 weapons caches consisting of over 10,000 rounds of small arms ammunition, over 2,000 heavy machine gun rounds, over 4,000 pounds (some two tonnes) of home-made explosives and around 100 homemade bombs were discovered in the raids, it said in a statement.

Iron Harvest is part of the countrywide Operation Phantom Phoenix launched last Tuesday.

It is being carried out in the central provinces of Diyala, where it is focused, and Salaheddin, and in the northern provinces of Nineveh and Tamim.

At least 10 US soldiers have been killed...