Iraq's government said yesterday it would deploy 40,000 Iraqi troops in Baghdad in a massive crackdown on insurgents who have killed hundreds of people since the new cabinet was formed this month.

The dramatic rise in violence, by mostly Sunni Arab insurgents, has raised fears the country could slide towards civil war if the Shi'ite-led government does not deliver on promises of stability soon.

Dubbed Operation Thunder, the crackdown will be unprecedented in size and scope, Defence Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi told a news conference. It will initially focus on Baghdad but will then expand to other parts of the country. Dulaimi did not say when the operation would begin.

These operations will aim to turn the government's role from defensive to offensive," Iraq's Interior Minister Bayan Jabor said at the same news conference. Despite the announcement, attacks persisted nationwide, with at least 13 people killed in bomb blasts and shootings.

The crackdown is the first major security action undertaken by the new government and comes as US forces conduct a security sweep in the lawless Anbar Province of western Iraq.

"We shall not leave any place for terrorists or those who shelter them and incite terrorism in Iraq, Dulaimi said. "We will stand against all those who try to shed Iraqi blood ... We will implement the law with everything we've got."

Three detainees escape

Meanwhile, three prisoners escaped from the notorious Abu Ghraib jail outside Baghdad yesterday, sneaking through two holes in the perimeter fence before dawn, the US military said.

"At approximately 5:50 AM (01:50 GMT), during a normal headcount, US forces discovered that three detainees were missing," the army said in a statement.

"The rapid-reaction force and all available guards responded and conducted a comprehensive search of the interior and exterior perimeter of Abu Ghraib," it said, but the escapees could not be found.

Around 3,400 prisoners are held at Abu Ghraib, a jail that was notorious for Iraqis under Saddam Hussein and was made notorious again after the scandal last year in which US soldiers were found to have abused Iraqi detainees.

US Lieutenant-Colonel Guy Rudisill, spokesman for detainee operations in Iraq, would not say how many US soldiers were charged with guarding the prison, but said he believed the security was adequate despite the escape.

"We have sufficient security. We're conducting an investigation to find out how this happened," he said. He said he didn't know if it was the first escape from Abu Ghraib.

It is the second jail break from a US detention facility in Iraq this year, following the breakout of 11 detainees from Camp Bucca in southern Iraq in April. They escaped by digging a 200-metre tunnel under the perimeter fence. All 11 were recaptured within 24 hours.

Minister: News on Zarqawi true

Also yesterday, reports that Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been wounded are true, Iraq's interior minister told a news conference.

"Yes, it is true," Bayan Jabor said when asked about a posting on an Islamist Internet site which said Zarqawi, the leader of the al-Qaida network in Iraq, had been wounded.

A statement in the name of al-Qaida Organization for Holy War in Iraq was posted on an Islamist website saying the group had appointed a deputy to fill in for Zarqawi, but a later statement purportedly from a group spokesman swiftly denied it.

(China Daily May 27, 2005)