US commanders announced the start of a major offensive outside Baghdad on Saturday aimed at flushing out al-Qaeda-linked fighters who unleash attacks on the capital.

The offensive began before dawnand is expected to last several weeks, said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, who oversees four provinces south of Baghdad.

The operation is in the region where three US soldiers were captured last month. The military reported on Saturday that the identification cards of the two still-missing soldiers were recovered in a raid on a suspected al-Qaeda-linked safe house north of Baghdad.

US commanders acknowledge that militants have the advantage of being able to blend into the local population. But military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said a search of the area yielded no evidence that the missing soldiers had been held at the house where their IDs were found June 9, he said.

The house contained computers, video production equipment and rifles, said the military. There was a gunfight as US soldiers approached the building near Samarra, and two soldiers were injured. But no one was found inside.

Spc. Alex R. Jimenez of Massachusetts, and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty of Michigan, disappeared after an attack on their patrol May 12 outside Yousifiya, 10 miles south of Baghdad. The body of a third soldier captured with them, Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr. of Torrance, California, was later pulled from the Euphrates River. Four other US and an Iraqi soldier died in the initial assault.

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