Baghdad, Iraq ? U.S. and Iraqi forces killed 85 militants at a suspected training camp along the marshy shores of a remote lake, one of the highest guerrilla death tolls of the two-year insurgency, officials said Wednesday. They said citizens emboldened by the January elections are increasingly turning in intelligence tips.

The raid at Lake Tharthar in central Iraq turned up booby-trapped cars, suicide-bomber vests, weapons and training documents, Iraqi Maj. Gen. Rashid Feleih told state television. He said the insurgents included Iraqis, Filipinos, Algerians, Moroccans, Afghans and Arabs from neighboring countries.

“What’s really remarkable is that the citizens this time really took the initiative to provide us with very good information,” Feleih said.

In three days, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials’ accounts, troops have killed at least 128 insurgents nationwide, culminating in the announcement of Tuesday’s attack by Iraqi commandos, backed by U.S. air and ground fire. On Sunday, U.S. soldiers killed 26 insurgents south of Baghdad, while a fight during an ambush on an Iraqi security envoy killed 17 militants on Monday.

“This string of successes does have positive repercussions in that it may convince Iraqis not supporting the insurgents — but not supporting the United States either — to perceive that the tide is turning and not go with the insurgents,” said Nora Bensahel, a Washington-based Iraq analyst for Rand Corp.

The U.S. military gave the first report of the Lake Tharthar raid, saying that seven commandos and an unspecified number of militants were killed. The military declined Wednesday to confirm the Iraqi government’s death toll of 85 militants.

In this photo released by the U.S. Army on Wednesday, Sgt. 1st Class Marshall P. Ware, of Lexington, Ky., poses with a cache of insurgent weapons recovered after an attack on a supply convoy southeast of Baghdad. Twenty-six insurgents were killed in the battle Sunday. On Wednesday, U.S. and Iraqi forces attacked a guerrilla camp, killing 85 insurgents and continuing a string of successes against militants this week.

U.S. Army Maj. Richard Goldenberg, a 42nd Infantry Division spokesman, said Iraqi commandos were in the area to conduct a different raid, but tips from residents redirected them to the lakeside camp. An Iraqi officer said residents had been providing intelligence for 18 days before the attack.

Iraqi officials also credited other successes to a torrent of intelligence that has begun flowing from citizens heartened by Jan. 30 elections and emboldened by film footage aired on state television that shows captured insurgents confessing their roles in attacks.

“Before, the people had a neutral stance toward this issue,” said Sabah Kadhim, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. “Now, they have turned against the terrorists.”