BAGHDAD, Nov. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- US troops in western Iraq raided a suspect al-Qaida fighters' safe house near Ramadi on Saturday, killing four insurgents, the military said in a statement.

    "The safe house was suspected to be an operational base of a senior al-Qaida leader in Iraq," the statement said.

    It said US troops killed four militants and detained four others, two of them wounded during the raid on the village of Qazwan near Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad.

    Meanwhile, some 3,500 US and Iraqi soldiers continued their operations to clear the flashpoint western town of Karabilah near the Syrian border on Saturday.

    "Clearing of Karabilah is slow and dangerous work for the Iraqi Soldiers and Marines because of the high concentration of hidden bombs in the city," the military said in a statement.

    A total of 67 mines and improvised devices have been discovered in the area since the beginning of the major offensive, dubbed Operation Steel Curtain. "These bombs are frequently placed in trash piles and buried in the soft dirt," the statement said.

    Operation Steel Curtain started on Nov. 5 in the western al-Anbar province to eradicate al-Qaida fighters and restore security in the region. Enditem