US forces believe the initial combat phase of a major offensive to clear al Qaeda from the Iraqi city of Baquba is nearly complete and any militants left could be confronted in the next 24 hours.
The operation in and around Baquba, capital of volatile Diyala province, is a major part of one of the biggest combined offensives by US and Iraqi forces against the Sunni Islamist group in Iraq since the invasion of the country in 2003.
"We will either make enemy contact quickly, or we won't," Colonel Steve Townsend, commander of the 3rd Stryker Brigade, told Reuters and another news agency late on Saturday.
"My company commanders' gut feel is that there won't be a big fight here," he said after a briefing late on Saturday with combat captains in the bombed-out remains of a building, once used by al Qaeda as a clinic, on Baquba's outskirts.
Townsend said latest intelligence indicated some fighters were still inside an American cordon, which has been steadily tightened since the operation was launched on Tuesday, cutting off options for the militants to escape. "They don't have any choice but to fight ... or put down their weapons and melt into the population," Townsend said. "The fight so far has gone a little easier than I expected.
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