Updated on Wednesday, November 29, 2006, 00:00 IST

Baghdad, Nov 29: US and Iraqi forces have killed or captured at least 7,000 al-Qaeda fighters in the past two years, with 30 "senior leaders' taken out of action since July, a US military spokesman said yesterday.

The news comes hard on the heels of a leaked US marine report that states US forces cannot defeat the al-Qaeda-led insurgency in the vast western desert province of al-Anbar.

"Since October 2004, we have now killed or captured over 7,000 al-Qaeda terrorists," coalition spokesman Major General William Caldwell told journalists.

"Coalition and Iraqi security forces have made significant progress in dismantling the terrorist network," he said, adding that since July some 30 "senior level" al-Qaeda have also been killed or captured.

Also, in the past two weeks, a series of raids throughout central and northern Iraq netted 11 leaders of the al-Qaeda-allied Ansar al-Sunna insurgent group, he said.

Caldwell disputed the leaked assessment of the situation in Anbar, which was reported by an American newspaper.

"If anything, there has been a turn of events in the past few months towards the positive," he said.

Citing a senior US intelligence official, the paper said "the fundamental questions of lack of control, growth of the insurgency and criminality" described in the August report remain true in November.

Bureau Report