BAGHDAD, Dec. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- The US military campaign against guerillas have caused wide-spread destruction to civilians in US-occupied Iraq.

   A farmer from the city of Baquba, 60 km north of Baghdad, said US troops had burned large areas of citrus orchards in the city, which were suspected to be guerilla hideouts.

   Baquba and its surrounding areas are well-known for best citrus orchards in Iraq. The 200,000 residents of the city mainly live on the plant.

   The Saudi-funded London-based "Asharqal-Awsat" daily, in its Baghdad edition Thursday front-paged an awful photo showing an Iraqi old woman standing in front of her house destroyed by US troops in al-Hawija, about 250 km north of Baghdad.

   The coalition troops have recently conducted a massive search for insurgents, including a senior figure of the former Saddam Hussein regime, in this small town.

   In the past eight months, the US forces equipped with tanks, helicopters and other heavy weapons, have carried out a series of operations in Iraq to hunt so-called loyalists to Saddam.

   From the northern Iraqi city of Mosul to Saddam's hometown Tikrit, few cities and towns escaped different levels of
destruction.

   Observers call all the spoilage and devastation disastrous consequences of turning Iraq into the "central front" in the war against international terrorism as US President George W. Bush put it.

   During Saddam's 24-year rule, his army bulldozed thousands upon thousands of hectares of fruitful orchards in towns such as Dujail and Khalis, razed Kurdish villages in northern Iraq to put down armed resistance against his autarchy.

   Observers say the policy of "collective punishment" by US troops will not win the hearts and minds of the 25-million Iraqi people. On the contrary, it is bound to fuel further anti-occupation resistance. Enditem