US soldiers have arrested around 25 people during an operation to flush out Saddam Hussein loyalists and criminal gangs in remote hideouts north of Baghdad.
Operation Ivy Needle began the day after US President George W. Bush vowed America would not retreat from Iraq in the face of a guerrilla insurgency.
Thousands of troops from the 4th Infantry Division, based in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, have launched a new operation to root out resistance in hostile Sunni Muslim territory to the north of Baghdad.
According to new figures issued by the Pentagon, 62 US soldiers have been killed in action in Iraq since Bush declared major combat over on May 1st, and a further 78 have died from accidents, illness or non-hostile incidents.
Yesterday the postwar US death toll in Iraq exceeded 138 - the number of US soldiers who died during the invasion and occupation of Iraq in March and April.
But Mr Bush said efforts to secure Iraq would continue.
"Retreat in the face of terror would only invite further and bolder attacks. There will be no retreat," he said in a speech amid growing criticism in the United States of his Iraq policy as he presses his case for re-election next year.
"Terrorists are gathering in Iraq to undermine the advance of freedom. And the more progress we make in Iraq, the more desperate the terrorists will become."
But Saddam himself remains on the run, despite a $25 million price on his head. Senior US officers based in one of his former palaces in Tikrit say they believe he is in disguise and moving every few hours.