U.S. forces in Iraq on offensive against Qaeda

By Ross Colvin

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a series of operations on Tuesday targeting al Qaeda in Iraq after an upsurge in suicide bombings which U.S. commanders say are an attempt by the militant group to reignite sectarian violence.

"Working closely with the Iraqi security forces, we will continue to pursue al Qaeda and other extremists wherever they attempt to take sanctuary," said Lieutenant-General Raymond Odierno, in a statement announcing the start of the offensive, dubbed Operation Phantom Phoenix.

Odierno gave few details of the new offensive but said it comprised a "series of joint Iraqi and Coalition division- and brigade-level operations to pursue and neutralise remaining al Qaeda in Iraq and other extremist elements".

In a later statement, the U.S. military said it had killed three militants and detained 28 suspects in operations in Baghdad, the area just south of the capital and the northern Diyala and Nineveh provinces on Monday and Tuesday.

Odierno, the day-to-day commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, did not say how Operation Phoenix would differ from current U.S. operations hunting al Qaeda operatives or what areas American and Iraqi forces would target.

The U.S. military says al Qaeda has been badly damaged but has the capacity to launch so-called "spectacular" attacks that cause mass casualties.

They say the group is now targeting U.S.-backed mainly Sunni neighbourhood patrols, armed volunteers paid by the U.S. military that include former insurgent fighters who have turned against the hardline Islamism and violence of al Qaeda.

On Monday a double suicide bomb attack killed 14 people including the head of the neighbourhood patrols in the Adhamiya district of Baghdad, a former al Qaeda stronghold, and gunmen in five cars kidnapped 8-10 volunteers in nearby Shaab district.