US FORCES in Iraq attacked guerrillas around Saddam Hussein?s hometown yesterday while President Bush steeled himself for protests over the war during a state visit to Britain (see on page 13).

Units from the 4th Infantry Division based around Tikrit, 175 km north of Baghdad, fired nearly 20 mortar bombs at insurgent positions, targeting a bunker and other locations suspected of being used to ambush American troops.

The commander of the operation said it was intended to show guerrillas US forces meant business and could strike at will.

?Basically the enemy will think twice about using the positions if he knows we can put accurate fire in there?, Lieutenant Colin Crow told reporters as his platoon took up firing positions on the edge of Tikrit in the early hours. In London, President Bush began the first full day of a three-day visit to Britain in what is largely expected to be a damage-control mission and an attempt to convince skeptical Britons that war in Iraq was the right thing to do.

?History has shown that there are times when...countries must use force to defend values?, an official travelling with Bush told reporters as the president arrived on Tuesday.

In Baghdad, forces from the 1st Armored Division used tanks and aerial bombardments to hit guerrilla targets overnight, forging ahead with Operation Iron Hammer, a move to crack down on anti-American attacks and bombings in the city.

The operation is one of a series of new assaults countrywide to try to quash a deepening insurgency that has killed at least 177 US soldiers in just over six months.

Most wanted person after Saddam

US officials also confirmed they had destroyed the home near Tikrit of Izzat Ibrahim, Saddam Hussein?s top lieutenant, who is accused of being directly behind some attacks on US troops. It was not clear if Ibrahim or anyone else was in the building when it was destroyed by satellite-guided missiles.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, a spokesman in Baghdad, said earlier this week that US forces were getting closer to catching Ibrahim, the most-wanted person in Iraq after Saddam.

Secretary of State Colin Powell flew to London to join Bush after a divisive meeting in Brussels with European Union foreign ministers over policy in Iraq and neighboring Iran.

Many EU ministers have urged the United States to speed the return of sovereignty to Iraq and diplomats in the UN Security Council said yesterday the United States, backed by Britain, planned a new resolution endorsing the creation of a provisional government in Baghdad by June next year.

As part of efforts to try to transfer more power to Iraqi authorities, a senior US commander in Iraq said on Tuesday local police would soon take over responsibility for security in the volatile town of Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad.

The transfer, set to be phased in between now and January 1st, promises to be a test case for power transfer as Ramadi, in the Sunni heartland which lies west and north of Baghdad, has been a hotbed of anti-American insurgency over the past six months.

Major General Charles Swannack also said he planned to recruit senior former Iraqi army officers who surrendered in the war to join the country?s new army, another step toward handing Iraq its own security forces.

?Here is a prime example of having officers that we can utilize in the new Iraqi army and soldiers that are trained. That is what our program is?, he said.

(With additional reporting by Randall Mikkelsen in London)

Dean Yates