BAGHDAD — U.S. bombers and jet fighters unleashed 40,000 pounds of explosives during a 10-minute airstrike today, flattening what the military called safe havens for al-Qaida in Iraq on the southern outskirts of the capital.

The strikes, carried out above approaching U.S. and Iraqi troops, was part of Operation Phantom Phoenix, a nationwide campaign launched Tuesday against al-Qaida in Iraq.

The campaign's scope is nationwide but is mainly focused on gaining control of Diyala and its most important city, Baqouba, which al-Qaida has declared the capital of its self-styled Islamic caliphate.

Six soldiers were killed and four were wounded Wednesday in a booby-trapped house in Diyala, the U.S. command said. It also announced that three U.S. soldiers were killed and two wounded in an attack Tuesday in Salahuddin province, north of Diyala.

LAHORE, Pakistan — A suicide bomber blew himself up among police deployed outside a court in eastern Pakistan ahead of a planned anti-government protest today, killing at least 22 people and wounding more than 70, officials and witnesses said.The blast in front of Lahore High Court was the latest in a wave of attacks targeting politicians and security forces ahead of Feb. 18 parliamentary elections. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion will likely fall on militants linked to Taliban and al-Qaida.Lahore chief of police operations Aftab Cheema said the bomber had run up to a barrier manned by police and blew himself up. He said 20 policemen and two civilians were killed. More than 70 others were wounded, including civilian passers-by, officials said.The police had been deployed in front of the court ahead of a weekly lawyers' protest against President Pervez Musharraf over his firing of Supreme Court judges in November.