US forces sealed off roads, searched houses and scoured the skies with helicopters in the restive towns around Baghdad this afternoon in a hunt for diehard Saddam Hussein loyalists blamed for recent attacks.
US army spokesman Sergeant Brian Thomas the new mission, Operation Desert Scorpion, would root out Saddam supporters who have staged fatal ambushes on US troops.
The operation aims to win hearts and minds as well as hunt guerrillas - a Central Command statement said it was "designed to identify and defeat selected Baath party loyalists, terrorist organisations and criminal elements while delivering humanitarian aid simultaneously".
More than 40 US troops have been killed in the six weeks since US President George Bush announced the invasion of Iraq war was ended on May 1st.
In the Sunni town of Falluja, 70 km (45 miles) west of Baghdad, troops searched some houses overnight, but by morning they were distributing food and supplies. Hostility to the Americans is widespread in Falluja after a series of clashes, but the town was quiet today with a low-key army presence. Seven Iraqi nationals were arrested at Falluja.
The attacks have been concentrated in Baghdad and two nearby areas - to the west around Ramadi and Falluja, and to the north around Balad, Baquba and Tikrit, Saddam's home town.
The US says remnants of Saddam's regime are behind the attacks. Many locals say they have no love for Saddam but that anger is mounting towards US soldiers occupying the country.
"We were oppressed under Saddam and now we are oppressed under the Americans," a trader in Falluja said.