U.S., Iraq Launch Large Assault on Insurgents Near Border With Syria

About 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops, backed by aircraft, tanks and amphibious vehicles, fanned out Friday in a coordinated strike near Iraq’s border with Syria in search of insurgents.

Heavy street fighting was reported in the town of Karabilah as U.S. forces engaged insurgents in the guerrilla stronghold. Marines reported destroying three buildings housing insurgents, and two suspected vehicle bombs were blown up.

The assault, dubbed Operation Spear, was the third large-scale attack led by Marines in volatile Al Anbar province in the last six weeks. The area has been the main bastion of Iraqi guerrillas and foreign fighters filtering in via the porous Syrian frontier. More than 100 Iraqi troops were accompanying U.S. forces, Col. Bob Chase, operations chief of the 2nd Marine Division, said Friday.

Two Marines were killed by a roadside bomb near Ramadi, the capital of Al Anbar, the military said Friday. Their deaths Thursday were the latest in a surge of U.S. military casualties in the province, mostly from improvised bombs along the region’s perilous routes. At least 21 U.S. troops have been killed in Al Anbar since June 9.

Operation Spear is focusing on Karabilah, where Marines and insurgents recently have clashed several times. On June 11, an airstrike on an insurgent checkpoint outside Karabilah killed an estimated 40 fighters, the Marines said, although residents later disputed that report, saying no guerrillas had been in the area.

“It has become clear to us that there’s a very widespread intimidation campaign going on against the locals,” Chase said.

There was no word on casualties in Friday’s operation. Four civilians were injured “after terrorists seized their home and fired at Marines and soldiers,” a U.S. statement said. They were evacuated to a nearby medical center.

Dr. Hamdi Alusi, director of the general hospital in the nearby city of Qaim, said half a dozen bodies were stuck under a bombed house in Karabilah. “We can’t get them out because of the continuous bombing,” he said by telephone.

Previous Marine operations in the area have drawn criticism from townspeople, and the Reuters news agency reported that a Sunni Muslim group in Qaim was calling on businesses to remain closed to protest Friday’s attack.

Al Anbar is a largely Sunni Arab province that has been hostile to the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq and the new U.S.-backed central government.

The government in Baghdad exercises little direct control in Al Anbar, where the vast majority of eligible voters stayed away from the polls during the Jan. 30 national election.

Shiite Muslims and Kurds have emerged as Iraq’s new political power brokers, and Sunni Arabs from Al Anbar and elsewhere have relatively little representation in the transitional government.

U.S. forces are stretched thin in the expansive province, and recruiting residents to join the armed forces has been difficult, since many are hostile to the government or fear retribution. Many Iraqi units assigned to Al Anbar are largely composed of Shiite or Kurdish recruits from other provinces.

Elsewhere in the province Friday, a car bomb detonated outside a mosque in Habaniya, killing four people and injuring 15, the Marines said, according to Associated Press.

In Baghdad, a remotely detonated car bomb struck a special police battalion, wounding five officers and killing a civilian, authorities said. In the northern city of Tuz Khurmatu, officials said, a car bomb targeting an Iraqi army convoy injured four soldiers and seven civilians.

Special correspondents Mohammed Arrawi in Baghdad and Ali Windawi in Kirkuk contributed to this report.