The camp run by Islamic radicals, who called themselves Ansar al-Islam, had been pummeled from air for several days before US troops aided by Kurdish forces entered the compounded located in a Kurdish-controlled area near the border with Iran, according to General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"We are in there on the ground with lots of force, some with some Kurdish help," Myers said, as he appeared on CNN's "Late Edition" show.

An undisclosed number of camp defenders, described by Myers as most likely al-Qaeda members, have been killed during the operation, while other have been captured.

"We're now in there on the ground and starting our investigation of exactly who's up there and what's up there," the general said.

The camp gained international notoriety last month when US Secretary of State Colin Powell mentioned it in his much-publicized speech before the UN Security Council as proof of the Iraqi government's secret ties to the al-Qaeda network, blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Powell said an Iraqi intelligence agent had offered al-Qaeda a safe haven in the region, which some members of the group gladly accepted after the United Stated launched Operation "Enduring Freedom" in 2001 to topple the Taliban government in Afghanistan and drive bin Laden's forces out of that country.

According to US officials, the bin Laden followers, who operated in northern Iraq, created a secret biological weapons laboratory inside the camp that was used to produce ricin and other poisons.

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