BAGHDAD, March 3: The top US commander in Iraq said on Wednesday Washington had intelligence warnings of attacks in Iraq, claiming that his troops probably prevented even greater carnage with special operations raids on Monday night on operatives of Abu Mussab al Zarqawi.

Gen John Abizaid said US and Iraqi forces foiled a third planned attack in Basra and thwarted plans to attack several prominent Shia personalities. "I believe the plan was for even greater carnage, and I think that joint action between Americans and Iraqis prevented that from happening, and we had better cooperation among various groups throughout Iraq in terms of security than is widely reported," he said.

The attacks bore the hallmarks of Zarqawi, hewing to a strategy for igniting a civil war that was laid out in an intercepted letter attributed to the Jordanian extremists, he said.

"We have clear intelligence that ties Zarqawi to this attack," Gen Abizaid said. "We also have intelligence that shows there are some linkages between Zarqawi and former regime elements, particularly the Iraqi intelligence services."

The general said coordination between the militant and the former intelligence carried "a lot of danger for the force". The commander said that at least six suicide attackers, and possibly more, took part in Tuesday's attacks in Karbala and Baghdad.

"We had some intelligence that indicated attacks would take place," he said. "We passed that intelligence to Iraqi police and Iraqi Civil Defence Corps units and to the local authorities.

"We also know they were trying to go after several prominent Shia personalities," he said. "And the night before (Monday), American special operations units raided some of the Zarqawi network operatives and probably prevented even greater carnage by being successful in one of those raids," he said.

Gen Abizaid said security inside Karbala had been left to local authorities because of sensitivities about the presence of US troops near the holy sites. -AFP