US soldiers get tough in Iraq

The United States military has adopted tough new tactics against guerrillas in Iraq, arresting relatives of insurgents and destroying houses used to plan attacks against American troops.

However, defence officials denied the move was modelled on hard-nosed tactics used by Israeli forces in Gaza and the West Bank, despite visits by US military officers to Israel this year to discuss urban combat.

"In recent weeks, we have begun using a much-increased tempo of taking the fight to remnants of the former regime to prevent them from planning and carrying out attacks on our people," one of the US defence officials, who asked not to be identified, said.

Herald Feature: Iraq