Baghdad, Iraq ? U.S. jets screamed low over the capital and helicopter gunships swooped in to pound a central Baghdad battleground Tuesday, supporting Iraqi and American troops in a daylong fight that officials said killed 50 insurgents in a militant Sunni Arab stronghold.

The battle raged on Haifa Street about 1 1/2 miles north of the heavily fortified Green Zone – home to the U.S. Embassy and other facilities.

It was the second major confrontation on Haifa Street in the four days since Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced a new drive to rid Baghdad of sectarian fighters.

The U.S. military said about 1,000 Iraqi and U.S. soldiers carried out “targeted raids to capture multiple targets, disrupt insurgent activity and restore Iraqi Security Forces control of North Haifa Street.”

“This area has been subject to insurgent activity which has repeatedly disrupted Iraqi Security Force operations in central Baghdad,” said a statement quoting Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, spokesman for Multi-National Division Baghdad.

He said the U.S. jets buzzing the city did not conduct any airstrikes, but “attack helicopters were used to engage targets in support of the ground forces.”

Bleichwehl said no U.S. or Iraqi soldiers were killed. He did not address the number of militants killed, but the Iraqi Defense Ministry reported 50 insurgent deaths.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Iraqi police reported finding 52 bodies dumped in three cities, 41 of them in Baghdad, all apparent victims of sectarian reprisal killings.

A U.S. military helicopter releases anti-missile decoy flares while flying over central Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. troops battled gunmen in central Baghdad's Haifa Street area Tuesday, and as many as 50 insurgents were reported killed.

At a Saturday ceremony marking the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Iraqi army, al-Maliki again vowed to strike at the Shiite and Sunni extremists behind the sectarian warfare that has bloodied the country over the past year.

Al-Maliki – who draws major support from radical, anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the dangerous Mahdi Army militia – appeared to have ordered the stepped-up fight with Sunni Arab fighters to put an Iraqi face on the latest bid to tame the capital.

Several al-Maliki aides and confidants have told The Associated Press that the prime minister plans to focus his troops, with American backing, on Sunni insurgents in western Baghdad at the outset of the drive. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the plan had not been disclosed.

Al-Maliki, the associates said, then plans to challenge al-Sadr to disarm and disband his militia because there would no longer be a reason for them to roam the streets with Sunni Arab insurgent forces crippled.