The U.S. military is sending back heavily armed AC-130 airplanes, the lethal Vietnam War-era "flying gunships", to fight Iraqi insurgency, The Washington Times reported on Monday.

The first of the turboprop-driven aircraft landed at an airbase in Iraq last week, according to the report.

The Florida-based gunships have operated over Iraq before, but flew from airfields elsewhere in the region. Basing the planes inside Iraq will cut hours off their transit time to reach suspected targets, the report said.

The gunship was designed primarily for battlefield use to place saturated fire on massed troops, and it also offers an intelligence gathering advantage in the Iraq fight: sophisticated long-range video, infrared and radar sensors.

The AC-130 flies into Iraq at a time when U.S. commanders are seeking all available tools to tackle Iraqi insurgents' stealth operations, especially at night, when they plant roadside bombs targeting American road patrols and convoys.

The U.S. Air Force's senior tactical commander in Iraq said the AC-130 could be both a high-intensity and low-intensity weapon.

Source: Xinhua