by Salam Farrag
MAHMUDIYA, Iraq, Sept 4 (AFP) - At least 44 people were killed Saturday in one of the bloodiest days since the new Iraqi government took office, as police suffered heavy losses in two separate incidents and clashes raged between US forces and insurgents.
In another blow to the fragile oil industry, saboteurs set ablaze pipelines in southern and northern Iraq, while the fate of two French journalists held hostage by a radical Islamist group remained uncertain.
Iraqi police and national guardsmen, assisted by US forces, launched a major assault on the no-go zone of Latifiya, a bastion of the Sunni Muslim insurgency south of Baghdad, in the boldest offensive by the new government since it took power three months ago.
The 24th Marine Expeditonary Unit said the raid targeted criminals and militants.
Twelve policemen were killed and five national guardsmen wounded in the raids that saw 200 hundred suspects arrested, an Iraqi national guard intelligence officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"We have received orders from Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to search Latifiya for weapons and terrorists. The operation will last at least a week," he said.
The officer was speaking from Mahmudiya, another town on the deadly stretch of road where foreigners, US forces and Iraqi police have often been targetted by insurgents.
The two French journalists disappeared on August 20 while traveling the perilous route, and sources close to the negotiations for their release had voiced concern that heavy-handed military operations in the area could harm their chances.
Violence also flared in the northern city of Kirkuk, where 17 people were killed and 36 wounded in a suicide car bombing, said Dr. Ridha Abdullah, head of the Kirkuk general hospital.
The bomb went off in front of a police academy, and 14 of the dead were policemen.
Also in northern Iraq, 13 Iraqis were killed and 53 wounded as US forces and insurgents battled for six hours in Tall Afar, west of the main city of Mosul, medics said.
The US troops, backed by a small national guard attachment, poured into the city after dawn to hunt down a "terrorist cell" and detained a wanted individual, the military said.
"The city of Tall Afar has been a suspected haven for terrorists crossing into Iraq from Syria," it charged.
Insurgents hit a US helicopter with gunfire and two soldiers were wounded as the chopper made an emergency landing. As the clashes intensified, an F-16 fighter jet dropped a large bomb near the city, the military said.
Soldiers guarding the downed helicopter killed two insurgents after coming under rocket propelled grenade fire, it said, adding that three Iraqi national guards were wounded in a separate incident.
It was unclear whether their deaths were included in the total for Tall Afar.
US troops pulled out at 2:00 pm (1000 GMT), with insurgents still hunkered down behind cars and in buildings waiting for a fresh assault.
In Mosul, two Iraqi policemen were killed in the latest drive-by shooting to hit the northern city, police and medical sources said.
And taking aim at Iraq`s crucial oil infrastructure, saboteurs blew up a section of pipeline in the south, the region which has accounted for the vast majority of exports.
"Exports will be affected, but it`s not immediately possible to quantify the losses," a senior oil official told AFP.
The attack near the southern port city of Basra came less than two days after saboteurs blew up a section of the key pipeline to Turkey, halting all exports from Iraq`s northern oil fields.
A nearby secondary pipeline was also hit Saturday near Kirkuk, an oil official said.
Iraq`s hostage crisis, meanwhile, took a new twist as the militant group holding the two French reporters claimed responsibility for a recent attack on a leading Iraqi politician. It said it had also taken one of his bodyguards captive but that he was now dead.
In a video shown Saturday by the Arabic-language news channel Al-Jazeera, the Islamic Army in Iraq said the hostage died of his wounds, but his boss, Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi accused the extremists of murdering him.
The militant group thought to be based mainly in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, has demanded Paris lift a controversial ban on headscarves in state schools to secure the release of French journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot and their Syrian driver.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier returned to Paris Saturday night after days of frantic shuttling between Arab capitals in a bid to secure their freedom.
Hopes the journalists` release was imminent were deflated Friday night as Malbrunot`s girlfriend Sylvie Cherpin told reporters French foreign ministry officials had informed her the release could still take days.
Dubai-based Al-Arabiya TV said another Islamist group had taken a Turk hostage and demanded his company cease its business activities in Iraq and threatened to behead him.
The latest videos by the Arab networks coincided with a decision by the Iraqi government to extend until further notice a ban slapped on Al-Jazeera a month ago on charges of inciting violence, hatred and racial tension.
The prime minister`s office said the Qatar-based channel had not respected the closure order nor answered demands for an explanation on the tone of its broadcasts.