Nine people were killed in Iraq's western town of Hit on Wednesday as US and Iraqi troops launched their latest offensive aimed at curbing insurgency in western Iraq, medical sources and witnesses said.

"We received nine bodies of civilians shot dead by US snipers," medical sources in the Hit Hospital told Xinhua.

The US forces detained Dr. Nazar al-Kubaisy, the head of Hit hospital, after accusing him of treating insurgents in the hospital, the sources said.

Local residents said US and Iraqi forces surrounded the town and imposed curfew as dozens of soldiers took the roofs of high buildings for sniper positions.

In another development, US and Iraqi forces gave the residents of the Haditha town two days to hand over insurgents, otherwise their town would be attacked, Muhammed al-Hadithi, a local resident told Xinhua.

"They (US and Iraqi forces) have ordered us by loudspeakers and leaflets dropped by US aircraft that we only have two days to hand over terrorists otherwise they will sweep our town," al-Hadithi said.

More than 1,000 US marines and Iraqi forces launched Tuesday morning a new major offensive, dubbed Operation Sword, to eradicate insurgents and foreign fighters along the Euphrates River between the cities of Haditha and Hit in western Iraq.

The Operation Sword, Saif in Arabic, is the fourth major offensive launched by the US and Iraqi forces in the western Anbar province during the past two months in an attempt to curb violent activities.

The area, some 200 km west of Baghdad, has been a bastion of insurgency against the US and Iraqi governmental forces.

Source: Xinhua