BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. troops and their Iraqi allies launched crackdowns Thursday against anti-government forces in widely separated parts of the country, sending warplanes against insurgent strongholds in two cities and restoring Iraqi state control in a third.
Dozens were reported killed in the two air attacks.
In another show of force, Iraqi soldiers raided the Najaf office of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to search for weapons. None was found, but the search marked the first time Iraqi forces had entered al-Sadr's office since an agreement last month ended weeks of heavy fighting in the Shiite holy city.
American warplanes hammered Tal Afar, a northern city near the border with Syria that lies on smuggling routes for weapons and foreign fighters. The operations are intended to return the city 30 miles west of Mosul to interim Iraqi government control, the military said.
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