BAGHDAD – Iraq and the United States have launched a counter-insurgency offensive meant to prevent Saddam Hussein loyalists from torpedoing the Jan. 30 elections.

The mission, termed Operation Checkmate, began on Jan. 19 and sought to rapidly discover and raid insurgency strongholds in the Sunni Triangle. The operation has combined the U.S. Marines and Iraqi military and police forces.

Sunni insurgents have urged their operatives to make the torpedoing of the Iraqi elections their priority. Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi has issued a 90-minute tape that urged his followers to be patient in the current insurgency war, Middle East Newsline reported.

Officials said Operation Checkmate would also test the effectiveness of Iraq's new special weapons and training [SWAT] teams. The teams have not completed training for full deployment.

The focus of Operation Checkmate would take place in the provinces of Baghdad and Babil. A major concern of coalition commanders was the area south of Baghdad termed the "Triangle of Death."

"We're hoping to keep them off-balance prior to elections; keep them guessing," Col. Ronald Jackson of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit said.

"This group has to be patient in the path that it has taken and not to hurry victory," the purported Al Zarqawi tape said. "The promise of God will be fulfilled no matter what."

Officials said they hope the operation would keep insurgents off balance. They said insurgency planning and operations would be reduced if the operatives were running from or fighting U.S. and Iraqi troops.

Similar operations were being organized in other troubled Iraqi provinces. They included Al Anbar, Diyala and Salah Eddin.

But officials acknowledged that the operation was based on precise intelligence of insurgency whereabouts. In Jabala, Operation Checkmate failed to find 10 buried 55-gallon drums of munitions reported by military intelligence. Instead, only 11 guns were found.

"There's no way we're going to find the weapons and bombs that were being stored by the terrorists," an official said. "So, most our efforts would be defensive."