US forces struck at targets near Baghdad airport this evening and attack helicopters and F-16 fighter jets carried out raids elsewhere in Iraq in operations in an effort to counter the resistance to a an occupation that is claiming a heavy toll in coalition lives.
Earlier today two more soldiers were killed in a bomb attack. US President George W. Bush vowed troops would stay until they had defeated insurgents fighting on seven months after Saddam Hussein's fall.
A spokesman for the 1st Armored Division said US forces hit five targets around Baghdad with mortar fire this evening in the third successive night of "Operation Iron Hammer", an American drive to attack guerrilla positions.
A US Apache helicopter killed seven Iraqis overnight as they allegedly prepared to fire rockets at a US military camp near Tikrit, according to a US army spokeswoman .
"These are locations the enemy has used to fire on us. Today we are firing first," he said. Witnesses reported several explosions around the airport, in the southwest of the city, as US planes and helicopters flew overhead. Later in the evening, a succession of blasts echoed from northwest Baghdad.
The tougher US tactics follow guerrilla mortar and rocket attacks on the headquarters of the US-led administration in Baghdad and a bloody few weeks in Iraq in which 16 Italian soldiers and dozens of American troops have been killed.
US officials have denied Washington was in trouble, but opinion polls show declining support among US voters for the occupation as Bush seeks re-election a year from now.
Key ally Japan has also shown cold feet about sending troops in the wake of Wednesday's suicide bomb attack on an Italian military base that killed at least 27 people.
"Look, we will stay until the job is done, and the job is for Iraq to be free and peaceful," Mr Bush said in response to concerns the US shift in strategy to speed up the transfer of authority to the Iraqi people could lead to a premature withdrawal of US forces and leave the country in chaos.