A US military policeman died in ongoing attacks on coalition troops and their allies, the US command said yesterday, as the US Army intensified operations to root out the growing insurgency.

　　The brief statement said the PM was killed on Sunday evening by a rocket-propelled grenade fired at a patrol in the town of Iskandariyah, 60 kilometers south of Baghdad.

　　The death brought to 37 the number of American soldiers who have died in Iraq this month. The downing last week of the Chinook and the crash of a Black Hawk helicopter made the first week of November the bloodiest for American forces since US President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1.

　　On Sunday, a senior Iraqi official warned that mounting violence may delay steps toward a new constitution, considered a major condition for returning the country to full Iraqi rule. And soldiers arrested 18 people in connection with a deadly missile barrage last month that Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz escaped, officials said.

　　L. Paul Bremer, the coalition's chief administrator in Iraq, warned that the coalition could expect intensified attacks in coming months.

　　"We're going to have increased attacks and increased terrorism because the terrorist can see the reconstruction dynamic is moving in our direction," Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, was quoted as saying in The Times newspaper of London.

　　"It will be more of a problem in the months ahead unless the intelligence gets better," The Times quoted him as saying.

　　Meanwhile, US forces intensified anti-insurgency operations west and north of Baghdad, areas which are seen as hotbeds of the anti-American revolt and where most of the coalition deaths occurred.

　　As part of the new tactic, US F-16 jets dropped three 225-kilogram bombs in the Tikrit area and blasted at least three buildings early on Saturday after the Black Hawk crashed - apparently due to hostile fire.

　　On Saturday, F-16s dropped three more bombs in the Fallujah area after a series of ambushes wounded three paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division, the military said.

　　A military spokesman said there was a "new focus" in the north and west of Baghdad to find areas where Saddam loyalists "and other noncompliant forces are operating."

　　"We are on offensive operations," a US officer said on condition of anonymity. "You can expect to see an increase in the level of intensity and the amount of activity that is occurring, especially in those 'challenging' areas.

　　"Part of warfare is coercion and affecting the hearts and minds of the enemy and certainly a show of force is a tool that can be used by commander," the official said.

　　In Baghdad, meanwhile, three mortars exploded late on Sunday in Baghdad's Karrada district, damaging a house but causing no injuries, police said.