'Iron fist' op ends ahead of charter vote

BAGHDAD, Sunday (AFP) - US forces have wrapped up one of four western Iraqi offensives aimed at pinning down Al-Qaeda linked insurgents a week before the population votes in a bitterly divisive constitutional referendum.

The US military said its troops had finished a six-day sweep in the western, Sunni dominated Al-Anbar province, killing "more than 50 Al-Qaeda terrorists."

Roughly 1,000 marines, soldiers and sailors ended Operation Iron Fist late Thursday, a statement said, while another reported that six marines had been killed in the operation.

Iron Fist's goal was to "root out Al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorists and to disrupt insurgent support systems" in and around Sadah, 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of the Syrian border on the Euphrates River, the first statement said.

Across Iraq, copies of the proposed constitution were distributed ahead of the October 15 referendum that will pave the way to general elections in December.

US and Iraqi officials believe that including more Sunnis in the political process will help isolate hard-core elements within the insurgency.

In the northern Kurdish province of Arbil, local official Nuzad Barzani said Kurdish-language drafts of the constitution were being released through all available channels.

"We have asked newspapers, radios and television stations close to Kurdish political parties to publish the document" as part of an information campaign designed to reach those in remote areas, he said.In the Baghdad neighborhood of Karradah, an Iraqi official said the document was being handed out along with food rations.

"Men ask for the constitution before the sugar. Woman want sugar and rice first," Ibrahim Hassan Bahadli noted.

"Some people read the constitution in the street, while others are afraid and hide it in their bags."