BAGHDAD, Oct 1: Some 1,000 US soldiers on Saturday launched an operation against a ‘terrorist sanctuary’ near Iraq’s border with Syria as violence surged ahead of a referendum on a post-Saddam Hussein constitution.

Operation Iron Fist aims ‘to root out Al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists operating in the area and to disrupt terrorist support systems in and around the city’ of Sadah, near Al Qaim, in the western Al Anbar province, a US military statement said.

Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian-born Abu Musab al Zarqawi, is said to be well implanted in the upper Euphrates Valley where, according to the US military, they obtain arms, supplies and reinforcements from nearby Syria.

Damascus denies it is allowing militants and supplies to cross into Iraq. Zarqawi’s group last month declared all-out war on Iraq’s Shia community.—AFP