On the offensive in Diyala and Maysan Provinces..

New York Times Damien Cave http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/18/news/iraq.php BAGHDAD: U.S. and Iraqi troops began major military operations outside of Baghdad on Monday, while deep in the south near the Iranian border, a ferocious battle between U.S. troops and Shiite militants left at least 20 dead and scores more wounded, Iraqi and U.S. officials said. The southern clash took place in Amara and Majjar al-Kabir, mostly Shiite towns just north of Basra. It came as troops fanned out across Iraq in what U.S. commanders have described as a broad offensive against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia in the provinces surrounding Baghdad.In Diyala Province, north of Baghdad, which has been the site of particularly vicious sectarian violence, witnesses said Iraqi security forces had moved into an area of western Baquba before dawn, encountering little armed resistance. The Iraqi forces were joined by members of the 1920s Revolutionary Brigade, who have rejected a long-standing alliance with Al Qaeda. Witnesses said the combined force was welcomed with demands from residents for more help in stopping the bloodshed and ridding Iraq of the Americans. "Why didn't you do this in the past?" said a man who gave his name as Abu Muhammad. He held the hands of a police captain and a 1920s Brigade commander, and said: "If you work together you can secure Iraq, and the occupation will have no choice but to leave. But if you stay divided, Al Qaeda will stay and the occupation will stay."The operation led to the deaths of at least four people whom the Iraqi police called terrorists. Another 14 were arrested and a large arms cache seized, the police said. In Amara, capital of Maysan Province, which borders Iran, the fighting started early in the morning during raids on what U.S. officials described as a secret network involved in transporting "lethal aid" from Iran, particularly the parts for roadside bombs using shaped charges. Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman here, said U.S. troops had intensified their focus on finding and dismantling places where such bombs are built because the parts are especially hard to stop at the border.The fighting involved members of the Mahdi militia, loyal to the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, according to Sadr officials in Basra, and the battle appeared to be the largest clash with Sadr's loosely affiliated gunmen since February.U.S. troops led the raid and reported no casualties, Garver said. British forces played a support role, a British military official said.According to a U.S. military statement, troops came under withering small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenade attacks, forcing commanders to call in air support. Attack aircraft strafed the buildings and destroyed a vehicle being used "as a fighting position," the statement said, wounding six suspects and leading to the detention of one of the gunmen.At least 60 people were wounded, according to a hospital official.A few hours later, members of the Mahdi militia marched alongside the coffins of those killed, said Abdul Karim al-Muhammadawi, a senior tribal and political figure in Amara."They left because there was no one to fight," he said, adding that by the afternoon, "it was quiet.""The armed presence of the Mahdi army was gone," he said.