Iraq arrests Qaeda members, seizes explosive belts

RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi police have arrested 13 suspected members of al Qaeda and seized 58 explosive belts prepared for suicide bombings, a local official said on Sunday.

Hikmat Jubair, mayor of the town of Hit west of Baghdad, said the suspects were arrested on Saturday night in possession of 13 explosive belts and then led police to another 45 hidden in a house.

"Acting on a tip delivered to the police, 13 people from al Qaeda were arrested while they were gathering in a house in western Hit," Jubair said.

Hit is 130 km (80 miles) west of Baghdad in Anbar province, once an al Qaeda base and bastion of Sunni Arab insurgents fighting U.S. and Iraqi troops.

Jubair said the 13 militants were suspected of involvement in a suicide bombing late last month that killed Hit's police chief, eight other policemen and four civilians.

U.S. and Iraqi military officials say al Qaeda is on the run in Iraq and that the group's networks in its last urban stronghold of Mosul in northern Iraq have been broken.

But officials say the group still poses a threat.

The U.S. military has been recruiting Sunni tribal leaders to help it fight al Qaeda, a strategy that has contributed to a sharp fall in violence.

(Writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Andrew Roche)