Jan 10 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq at 1630 GMT on Thursday.

* ARAB JABOUR - U.S. forces launched their biggest air strikes in at least a year, dropping 40,000 pounds of bombs within minutes on al Qaeda targets in date palm groves on Baghdad's southern outskirts, the U.S. military said.

* BAGHDAD - U.S. forces described strikes throughout central and northern Iraq as part of an offensive launched this week called Operation Phantom Phoenix. They said they had killed at least five militants and captured at least 18 suspects.

* BAGHDAD - A car bomb in eastern Baghdad's Palestine Street neighbourhood killed one person and wounded four, police said. Seven shops were destroyed.

BAGHDAD - Two Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded, all from the police and army, when a roadside bomb detonated after they arrived at a small road in central Baghdad where an earlier bomb had blown up inside an abandoned car, police said. The earlier explosion did not harm anyone.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi security forces found the bodies of three people with gunshot wounds across Baghdad on Wednesday, police said.

YUSUFIYA - U.S. helicopter fire killed four insurgents who were placing a roadside bomb near the town of Yusufiya on Sunday, just south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

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