BAGHDAD, May 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Hundreds of US and Iraqi soldiers backed by aircraft swept Wednesday Iraq's western town of Haditha in search of militants, killing eight people, the US military and witnesses said.

    US and Iraqi troops early Wednesday launched the new offensive dubbed "Operation New Market" on Haditha, some 200 km northwest of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.

    The operation was "focused on disrupting insurgent activity" as insurgency has recently increased in the area, added the statement.The US forces believe foreign fighters such as followers of the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man for the Americans in Iraq, are active and moving in the area.

    Haditha is situated on the bank of Euphrates river and has longbeen a bastion of insurgency against the US troops in Iraq.

    "Sporadic clashes continued in the town and US-Iraqi soldiers searching homes looking for weapons and asking people if they knowany insurgents," a local resident, Ghassan al-Juaani told Xinhua.

    "Eight people were killed in the clashes, including three children and an Imam of al-Saif mosque in the town and their bodies were still lying on the street as the US forces imposed curfew onthe town," Juaani said.

    "The Imam was killed by sniper bullet early in the morning as heleft his home for prayer in the mosque, and the three children werekilled as they were heading to their school," he added.

    The US troops pounded a mosque in Haditha's Askari district,wounding five people. They also pounded a house in jghaifa district, wounding four and destroying the house," Juaani said.

    "The US soldiers are surrounding Haditha Hospital, preventing itfrom receiving any wounded people," a doctor named Walid al-Hadithi told Xinhua.

    Several people were detained by the soldiers, residents said,but the military had no immediate word on their detention. Enditem