Baghdad sees end to Al-Qaeda as more than 100 rebels killed
Iraq said Al-Qaeda's reign of terror was nearing its end, as the US military announced the killing of 104 rebels since the slaying of the group's leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon said the US military death toll in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion reached 2,500.

And the practice of abducting foreigners again reared its head, with Al-Jazeera television reporting that a group claimed to have kidnapped Turk Hasan Eskinutlu and his unidentified interpreter north of Baghdad.

The Imam Ali Brigade, which showed a photo of Eskinutlu with an identity card, demanded that Turkey withdraw its ambassador from Iraq and that Turkish transport companies stop cooperating with US forces, Al-Jazeera said.

Ankara was given a week to meet the demands, which also included it putting pressure on Iraq to release people from prison.

"We believe Al-Qaeda in Iraq was taken by surprise; they did not anticipate how powerful the Iraqi security forces are and how the government is on the attack now," he told reporters.

The documents had given Iraq an "edge over Al-Qaeda and will also give us the whereabouts of their network and their leaders and their weapons, and the way they lead the organisation and the whereabouts of their meetings".

Rubaie said important documents had been seized from the rubble of Zarqawi's safe house following its destruction in a US air strike on June 7.

Citing one document, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office disclosed that Zarqawi aimed to try to widen the rift between the United States and Iran with kidnappings and assassinations involving US interests falsely attributed to Iran.

Iraqi Army soldiers drag presumed arrested insurgents during a drill ©AFP - Ahmad al-RubayeIn what the government dubbed Zarqawi's "plan of death and destruction", he voiced doubt whether "America is truly an enemy of Iran because of the large support that Iran provided America in its wars against Afghanistan and Iraq".

The group also planned to carry out attacks in the West and plant evidence implicating Iran, Maliki's office said.

US officials later revealed that particular document had been found before Zarqawi's death in a raid on an Al-Qaeda safe house.

Iran and the US have had testy relations for decades, exacerbated in recent months over Iran's uranium enrichment, which Tehran insists is for nuclear power and Washington fears could be used for bombs.

US military spokesman William Caldwell said that since Zarqawi's slaying, US and Iraqi forces have conducted 452 operations and killed 104 "anti-Iraqi elements." Another 759 suspects have been detained.

He also released pictures of Egyptian-born Abu Ayyub al-Masri, alias Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, believed to have replaced Zarqawi as Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq.

Iraqi Army soldiers take position during a drill ©AFP - Ahmad al-RubayeIn Washington, the Pentagon said the latest combat death of a marine raised the overall toll for Operation Iraqi Freedom to 2,500, including 1,972 service members killed in action.

The White House called the 2,500th death "a sad benchmark", adding that US President George W. Bush believed they had not died in vain.

Meanwhile, Baghdad remained under a security clampdown for the second day as more than 50,000 Iraqi and US forces patrolled the streets in Maliki's new security plan for the capital, where dozens of people have been killed daily in recent months.

The defense ministry said security forces arrested four "terrorists", detained 34 suspects, conducted 169 patrols, set up 160 additional checkpoints and carried out two raids since the plan took effect.

On Wednesday, Bush told reporters in Washington that 26,000 Iraqi soldiers, 23,000 Iraqi police and 7,200 coalition forces were deployed as part of "Operation Forward Together".

The plan includes house-to-house searches of areas suspected of hiding insurgents and a crackdown on civilians carrying arms.