BAQOUBA, Iraq — American ground forces, backed by Apache helicopter gunships and fighter jets, launched a large-scale offensive Tuesday to clear al-Qaida and other insurgent groups from the capital of Iraq’s volatile Diyala province.

The offensive began before dawn, with ground elements of 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment and 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment moving in a pincer movement on the western half of the city. Other elements, including the 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Task Force (1-12th Combined Arms Battalion), moved to secure the other half of the city, east of the Diyala River.

Operation Arrowhead Ripper, as the offensive is called, is meant to kill and capture as many insurgents as possible, secure the local population and “set the conditions” for eventual turnover to the Iraqi army and police, according to senior U.S. officers.

Three U.S. brigades are taking part in the operation, with an Iraqi army brigade expected to join the fight on Wednesday. The offensive is part of a wave of major operations that began Monday across Iraq, now that 30,000 additional U.S. forces have arrived in Iraq as part of the “surge” announced by President Bush in January.

U.S. intelligence estimates have placed as many as 1,000 insurgents in Baqouba, with some officers predicting that, if insurgents stand and fight, the combat could be as tough as the monthlong Fallujah battle in November 2004.

“Here’s the bottom line: Regardless of how many there are, we are going to go after them,” said Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, deputy commanding general for operations of the 25th Infantry Division’s Task Force Lightning, which has overall command of the operation.

“Regardless of where they are, we are going to find them. Our expectations are … that it will be a tough fight, and we expect that. (But) our great soldiers and airmen are ready, and we’ll make it happen,” Bednarek said in an interview the day before the operation began.

The offensive is expected to take as long as 60 days before Baqouba is handed over to full Iraqi control.

But in a worst-case scenario, Bednarek said U.S. forces will remain in the city “until mission complete.”

Baqouba has seen some of the worst fighting in Iraq in the past six months, as some insurgents have fled Baghdad.

In the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment’s sector, resistance appeared lighter than expected on Tuesday. U.S. troops began clearing neighborhoods at dawn, but instead of insurgents, they met mostly startled residents.

Explosions rocked the morning in other parts of the city, as Apache gunships circled overhead. Soldiers with Company C’s 3rd Squad, 3rd Platoon, searched several houses, met by townspeople, some of whom motioned the troops into their houses.

“Welcome, welcome,” said an elderly man, waving the troops inside. “Thank you very much,” he said, as they left.

Staccato bursts of machine gun fire echoed randomly around the city. Mortar rounds landed a few streets over with a loud crack. The Apaches circling overhead periodically launched Hellfire missiles. An unseen jet dropped a precision-guided bomb on a mosque identified as an insurgent-linked site. The blast rocked the city, sending a huge black plume of smoke into the sky.

By 9 a.m., 3rd Squad had searched more than two dozen houses, but encountered no resistance. Nor had they found anything suspicious. In one house, the troops encountered a family watching a soccer game on satellite television. In another, a man served the soldiers Pepsi in small glasses usually reserved for drinking hot sweet tea.

A trio of schoolgirls stopped and yelled across a garbage-strewn canal if they could continue down the street. A soldier waved them on. But the girls appeared afraid of two M-1 tanks parked several hundred meters down the road. After a while, they turned and went back home.

A group of kids gathered, following the soldiers. With their sector clear, the troops took a break in a courtyard under a sprawling portico of polished stone tile. A half-dozen kids followed them and began to question the soldiers in a mixture of broken English and Arabic.

They asked the soldiers for their sunglasses, their watches, their money. The soldiers played along for a while, but soon everyone was sacked out, sleeping. They’d been up all night and the respite was welcome. The kids soon lost interest and left.

The rest was shattered about two hours later when a series of single rifle shots rang out. A pair of M-240 machine guns hammered away in response. Soldiers reported that another squad, about 200 meters away, had come under fire from a sniper in a house about 600 meters away. A fire mission was called. After a long while, 120 mm mortar rounds began to land around a house down the street.

Up on the roof, Sgt. Luis Cruz, 28, of Davenport, Iowa, said that before they were extended, 1-23rd Strykers were supposed to be going back to Fort Lewis, Wash., by now.

“We’re supposed to be home right now, having a victory celebration,” he said. “Instead we’re here.”

Cruz said the thing now is trying to keep each other motivated.

“Right now, we’re beat,” he said. “We’re just smoked from the op tempo. But that’s the nature of the beast.”

As the mortars began to land, a man came into the street about 400 yards away. Sgt. Rusty Christian, 21, of Greeneville, Tenn., opened fire on him, reasoning that only an insurgent would walk out into the street as mortars were falling.

During a lull in the shelling, one of the kids returned with a platter full of baked chicken, rice and bread. The owner of the house, a bald man in his mid-40s, offered the soldiers food. Several of them dug in, a few declined.

“This chicken is damn good,” said Pfc. Westin Floeter, 20, of Spokane, Wash., wolfing down chicken and rice wrapped in flat bread.

Squad leader Staff Sgt. Brian Piehler gave one of the kids four dollars to go and buy Pepsis for the squad. But the kid came back after a while and said the store was closed. It didn’t matter, as the soldiers wouldn’t have had time to enjoy them anyway. They were moving again, back to another empty house where they would bed down for the rest of the afternoon and probably the night.

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