WASHINGTON – Using images of children in combat camouflage, a coalition of anti-war groups is airing about $500,000 in ads against Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and three other GOP senators, including Susan Collins of Maine, who are facing re-election next year, urging them to “bring our troops home.”

The ads come as official Washington turns its attention to a series of assessments on progress in Iraq that will culminate with a report next week from Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq.

Sponsored by Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, the ads will also target Republican Sens. Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Pete Domenici of New Mexico. The ads are scheduled to run for 10 days and will appear frequently on broadcast stations in the four senators’ home states and nationally on cable.

The ads depict children in fatigues in a training camp as an announcer says: “How long will Republican senators keep us stuck in Iraq? Should we start training our children now?”

Other ads mention the targeted senators by name.

The ads mean the airwaves in those states will be saturated with competing messages on the war.

A group of former White House aides and Republican fundraisers are spending $15 million to advertise in those states and in others to keep lawmakers from wavering on President Bush’s Iraq war strategy.

The anti-war ads are part of a campaign that plans to spend $13 million through the end of September to pressure lawmakers to support a troop withdrawal, said Tom Matzzie, Washington director of MoveOn.org, a member of the anti-war coalition.