BAGHDAD, Aug 26: A bomb attack on a US convoy killed a US soldier and wounded two in Iraq on Tuesday, as hundreds of troops launched a new operation to hunt down guerrillas in the north of Baghdad.

The Fourth Infantry Division, based in Saddam’s home town of Tikrit, said on Tuesday it had launched Operation Ivy Needle, a series of raids backed by tanks, armoured vehicles and helicopters to root out resistance in three provinces.

“What we are doing is surgical strikes on more remote areas where we have not had a very large or enduring military presence,” Major Josslyn Aberle told reporters in Tikrit.

The loss of the soldier was the 139th for US forces since President George W. Bush declared major combat over on May 1 and took the death toll past the 138 US casualties sustained in six weeks of war. That may raise pressure on Bush to persuade Americans that there is an end in sight to the campaign in Iraq.

A US Army spokeswoman said the convoy was attacked on a highway west of the capital between the towns of Falluja and Ramadi, hotbeds of resistance against occupying US forces. Roadside bombs and improvised mines have been widely used against vulnerable US convoys in Iraq.

OPERATION IVY NEEDLE: The first raids in the new operation were around the town of Khalis, north of the capital, where troops were hunting members of a criminal gang suspected of carrying out several attacks on American forces and Iraqi police.

Officers said the gang was led by a crime boss released last year when Saddam granted an amnesty to prisoners in Iraq’s notorious jails. They said 24 people had been detained but the gang leader had not been found.