A U.S. soldier checks weapons on top of a Stryker armoured vehicle before a mission in Baqouba early June 19, 2007. The U.S. military deployed 10,000 soldiers, attack helicopters and armoured fighting vehicles in an offensive against al Qaeda on Tuesday in one of the biggest operations since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The military said 22 militants were killed in the early hours of the offensive around the city of Baquba in Diyala province, an al Qaeda stronghold north of Baghdad.