Al-Qaeda's Iraq operation has said it is launching an offensive in the west of Iraq in response to a major US and Iraqi military operation on the Syrian border.
A statement said the group, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had the right to defend the nation and avenge the honour and blood of Iraqis.
Yesterday, it issued a warning for US and Iraqi forces to halt their sweep against insurgents within 24 hours.
Operation Steel Curtain began last Saturday and was designed to restore Iraqi sovereign control along the Iraqi-Syrian border.
Around 1,000 Iraqi soldiers and a force of 2,500 US troops were engaged in the sweep, which the US military said has resulted in the deaths of at least one US marine, an Iraqi soldier and 36 suspected rebels.
Elsewhere, bomb attacks aimed at Iraqi security forces killed at least nine people today as violence seemed unabated.
Saddam trial lawyer killed
One of the lawyers acting for some of the co-defendants in the trial of the deposed Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, was shot dead in a gun attack this morning.
Adil al-Zubeidi was killed and his colleague Thamer Hamoud al-Khuzaie was injured when their car came under fire in the western Baghdad district of Hay al-Adil.
Both men were on a team defending Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan.
Today's attack has renewed questions over whether the former president can get a fair trial amid Iraq's daily violence.
It follows the murder of another defence lawyer, Saadoun al-Janabi, who was shot the day after the trial started in Baghdad last month.
Saddam Hussein and seven others are accused of crimes against humanity.
The defence team, which had already threatened to boycott the next hearing on 28 November unless measures are taken to protect them, said a fair trial was impossible in current circumstances.
