By Ross ColvinBAGHDAD (Rooters) - The U.S. military said on Monday it had killed 60 militants during a week-long, U.S.-led offensive in northern Iraq against al Qaeda, a resilient foe that has resisted previous attempts to drive it from the region.
The U.S. military, which has declared al Qaeda the single greatest threat to Iraq's security and blamed it for an upsurge in suicide bombings, launched the offensive on January 8, focusing on four northern provinces and Baghdad's southern suburbs.
In Baghdad, gunmen killed appeals court judge Amir Jawdat al-Naeib as he drove to work on Monday. Naeib's driver was also killed. Militants have frequently targeted judges, academics, other professionals and their families.
The new offensive is seen as part of the U.S. strategy of reducing violence to give Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government time to cement the security gains with political progress towards national reconciliation.
But progress has been slow and many Iraqis complain that while security has improved, the government is still failing to provide basic services such as water and electricity.
The military said in a statement that U.S. and Iraqi forces had killed 60 militants, detained 193 and found 79 weapons caches containing thousands of rounds of ammunition, explosives and home-made bombs during the offensive in northern Iraq.
Troops had found one cache in an underground bunker complex with several rooms during operations in Diyala, a volatile, religiously mixed province north of Baghdad.
But the fighting has not been one-sided. Police said seven policemen were killed when the house they were searching blew up in the town of Buhriz just south of Baquba, Diyalas' capital.
Six U.S. soldiers were killed in Diyala last week when a house booby-trapped with explosives collapsed on top of them. It was the single greatest loss of life by U.S. troops so far during the operation.
A similar offensive targeting al Qaeda in Diyala last summer failed to drive out the Sunni Islamist group because many militants escaped before the well-flagged operation.
A series of U.S. and Iraqi operations against al Qaeda in the second half of 2007 largely drove the group from the capital and western Anbar province, and they are now regrouping in the north, U.S. officials say.
Followed by bad news about power cuts. Quagmire!