US troops seek to retake western Iraq towns
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-05 09:19

"A lot of the locals we met were very helpful, and a lot pointed out insurgents or those who had been helping them," Neller said. At least 11 people were detained.

The earlier U.S. offensive began Saturday, 93 miles upriver by the Syrian border, and continued Tuesday in the towns of Sadah, Karabilah and Rumana. A bomb killed a Marine in Karabilah, the first casualty of that operation.

At least 41 insurgents have been killed in Iraqi Fist, the U.S. military said. But many fighters appeared to have fled before the assault, with the military reporting no major engagements Tuesday.

The deaths in the two operations, along with that of a soldier shot in the western town of Taqaddum, raised to at least 1,940 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Operation River Gate was notable for the strongest participation this year by Iraqi troops — U.S. commanders said hundreds were involved — at a time of deep concerns about their readiness.

The simultaneous strikes appeared aimed at breaking two insurgent strong points.

The small, isolated towns near the border have been used as way stations for foreign fighters joining the fight. Haditha is also an "an important crossroads" for al-Qaida smuggling of fighters and weapons, the military said.

Together, the Haditha area towns form a larger population center — with more than 100,000 residents — where militants have been operating almost freely after driving out Iraqi security forces with a series of bloody attacks earlier this year.

Twenty Marines and an Iraqi interpreter were killed in Haditha in an ambush and roadside bomb on Aug. 1 and Aug 3. Last spring, a suicide car bombing wrecked Haditha General Hospital, the region's largest. The U.S. military has said that Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of Al-Qaida in Iraq, once had a home in Haditha.

The new U.S. assault is "step forward to eliminating insurgents and giving the country back to the Iraqi people," said Col. Stephen W. Davis, who said it would also help people in area freely vote Oct. 15.

Insurgent violence has killed at least 237 people, including 21 U.S. service members, in the past nine days ahead of the referendum.

In Baghdad, Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. helicopters fought about 40 gunmen house-to-house Tuesday in south Baghdad. More than three dozen insurgents were killed, wounded or detained, the U.S. military said. Three Iraqi soldiers were injured.

Also Tuesday, a suicide car bomb exploded at the main entrance to the heavily fortified Green Zone, a district of Iraqi government buildings and the U.S. and British embassies. The blast killed at least two policemen.

Separately, the leader of an extremist Islamic group that threatened to use chemical weapons against U.S. positions and the Iraqi government has also been killed in Iraq, according to an Internet statement posted Tuesday. Al-Haj Othman, the emir of the Mujahedeen of the Victorious Sect Brigades, was killed in fighting, said the statement. It did not provide any other details.

With the start of Ramadan, Al-Qaida in Iraq urged fighters to make it a "month of victory for Muslims and a month of defeat for the hypocrites and polytheists."

Previous Ramadans saw a spike in violence in Iraq — especially suicide attacks, in part because some Islamic extremists believe those who die in combat during Ramadan are especially blessed.