The Iraqi militant stronghold of Ramadi was surrounded US forces today as the military tried to step up pressure on insurgents by setting up extra checkpoints to deny them freedom of movement.
US and Iraqi forces are battling a Sunni insurgency that erupted after Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003 and shows no sign of easing despite the June 7th killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, and a security clampdown in the capital.
Ramadi has emerged as Iraq's biggest hotspot since a major US military offensive crushed militants occupying nearby Falluja on the River Euphrates in 2004.
Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Salas said: "We are focusing on multiple sites used by the insurgents to plan and conduct terrorist attacks and store weapons.
"We have also set up additional checkpoints to restrict the flow of insurgents, but citizens will still be able to enter and leave the city."
Meanwhile, Baghdad was relatively calm today, apart from an attack in which gunmen stormed a bakery in Kadhimiya, a mainly Shi'ite Muslim district, and snatched 10 employees
Insurgents often mount such attacks as part of a campaign to topple the US-backed, Shi'ite-led government.
The Mujahideen Shura Council, which had pledged to continue what it described as the holy war against crusader forces until "doomsday", said in a statement that it was behind four Baghdad bombs yesterday, out of the seven reported by police.
It described one attack, a car bomb at a checkpoint in east Baghdad that police said killed 11 people, as "a blessed operation that led to the torching of three cars and the killing of the soldiers around the building".