Iraqi army kills 14

The Iraqi army said it killed 14 insurgents and captured 35 yesterday as soldiers chased militants down the narrow streets of the rebel northern town of Tal Afar, on the fourth day of a major military assault.

Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, speaking at a press conference with President George W. Bush in Washington, said Iraq would not set a timetable for the withdrawal of US soldiers, backing away from published remarks saying the US could withdraw as many as 50,000 by the end of the year.

Iraqi troops, backed up by their US counterparts, have taken the lead in the Tal Afar latest assault against Sunni Muslim insurgents launched on Saturday.

The assault risks creating further division in an already fragmented society a month ahead of a referendum on a disputed Constitution and the trial of ousted leader Saddam Hussein.

"Today we have captured 35 terrorists and killed 14," Iraqi Captain Mohammed Berwari said in Tal Afar, a mostly ethnic Turkmen town near the Syrian border.

"Tal Afar is surrounded from all sides. Now the terrorists are running and the Iraqi army is chasing after them down the narrow streets. Operations will end soon and starting tomorrow people will start returning to their houses."

He said one Iraqi soldier was killed and five wounded by a roadside bomb in Tal Afar yesterday, and the army had found a large number of weapons caches, including three tonnes of munitions.

The US and Iraq say Tal Afar is a staging-post for arms and foreign fighters entering Iraq from Syria, spreading across the country to join the Sunni Arab insurgency against the Kurdish- and Shi'ite Muslim-led Iraqi government.

Iraq closed parts of the Syrian border on Sunday and on Monday US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad warned that "our patience is running out with Syria".

In an interview with the Washington Post published yesterday, Mr Talabani was quoted as saying up to 50,000 American troops could be withdrawn by the end of the year.

However, he later distanced himself from the remarks, saying setting a timetable would be self-defeating. "We will set no timetable for withdrawal. A timetable will help the terrorists, will encourage them that they could defeat a superpower of the world and Iraqi people," Mr Talabani said during his press conference with Mr Bush.

"We hope that by the end of 2006 our security forces are up to the level of taking responsibility from many American soldiers with complete agreement with the Americans," he added.

The US has about 140,000 troops in Iraq and is training Iraqi forces to take over. President Bush has faced increasing calls to start bringing soldiers home.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking to reporters in Berlin, repeated previous statements that US soldiers levels will be adjusted based only on the conditions on the ground in Iraq as opposed to on a fixed timetable.