US troops have hit insurgents overnight with air, artillery and mortar bombs around the town of Baquba in central Iraq.
"They attacked us during Ramadan when we were willing to give them a chance, so this is our response," said ground commander Lieut Col Mark Young.
Lt. Col. Young said two U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb yesterday, highlighting the trouble US occupying forces face in the Baquba area, a hotbed of anti-US activity in central Iraq.
Yesterday's attack was the second of a three-night operation dubbed "furious fire" by the Task Force 367 of the Second Brigade, Fourth Infantry Division.
Two F-15s flew from Qatar to drop four 500-pound bombs on farmhouses and other sites in the opening scene of the two-hour assault around a highway which US troops have dubbed "RPG alley".
Operation coordinators said two men with assault rifles fled from the target site buildings in the middle of a field. "One killed, one got away," one soldier reported.
Apache helicopters then fired artillery fire on other locations outside the town, some 60 kilometres northwest of Baghdad, followed by a dozen 155 mm howitzers and over two dozen 120 mm mortars, shaking the ground for miles around. There were no final details on casualties or damage.