BAGHDAD, Nov. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Some 57 suspected insurgents were detained in northern Iraq in recent two days as US forces and Iraqi police were stepping up operations to root insurgents holed up in the vast Sunni area, the US military said on Sunday.

   US and Iraqi forces made a joint search at midnight early Sunday near Ad Dawr, a town where Saddam Hussein was captured by US troops in a underground hole last year, detaining 14 suspected insurgents, the military said in a statement.

   The American soldiers first made a raid in a government-housing complex and collected the detainees, followed by Iraqi police and Iraqi National Guards who began "registering legal residents" inthe compound, added the statement.

   On Saturday, US forces and Iraqi police also arrested 43 suspected insurgents in a series of raids throughout the northern city of Mosul.

   Meanwhile, it was reported that 17 more bodies were found in Mosul on Sunday, bringing to at least 57 assassinated men in the third largest Iraqi city in the past weeks.

   US officials said the killings were part of an effort to demoralize the fledging Iraqi security forces.  Enditem