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Baghdad: The US Army's ongoing bid to mop up resistance in Northern Iraq has left at least 113 dead this week, according to US and Iraqi sources, as a top Iraqi politician warned that attacks would continue until local people are given more power.

US forces killed 82 combatants at a desert training camp at Sahl, near the border with Syria, a Muslim leader from a neighbouring village said.

The dead included at least one non-Iraqi, said Sheikh Gharbi Abdul Aziz, Imam of the main mosque at Rawa, a few kilometres from Sahl.

He said he had taken part in the burial of the 82 bodies after fighting erupted on June 12 at dawn at the suspected extremist training camp.

The US military had reported killing 27 Iraqis after clashes broke out late on June 12 when a us fourth Infantry Division armoured patrol came under rocket propelled grenade attack near Balad, about 80 km North East of Baghdad.

Four other Iraqis died in Dhuluiya during a hunt for "Chemical Ali," Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam, witnesses said.

Fighting this week – the most intense since US President George W Bush declared on May 1 that major combat was over – has been concentrated in areas North of Baghdad, where many people still express sympathy for the regime of Saddam Hussein, which was ousted by US-led coalition forces in April.

Agencies