Iraqis in Border Town Flee as Marines Battle Insurgents

Waving white flags and hauling their belongings, scores of terrified Iraqis fled a second day of fighting Sunday between U.S.-led forces and insurgents in the town of Husaybah near the Syrian border. U.S. Marines and Iraqi troops battled insurgents house to house, the U.S. military said.

American jets struck at least 10 targets Sunday in Husaybah, a market town 200 miles northwest of the capital with a population of about 30,000, the U.S. said in a statement.

Col. Stephen W. Davis, commander of the 3,500 American and Iraqi troops involved in the operation, said late Sunday that his troops had moved “about halfway” through Husaybah. At least 36 insurgents had been killed since the assault began Saturday and about 200 men had been detained, Davis said.

The New York Times, which had a journalist embedded with the American forces, reported in today’s edition that one U.S. Marine was killed Sunday and that three others were wounded.

Residents of the area said by satellite phone that sounds of explosions diminished somewhat Sunday, although bursts of automatic weapons fire could be heard throughout the day. The residents said coalition forces warned people by loudspeakers to leave on foot because troops would fire on vehicles.

“I left everything behind -- my car, my house,” said Ahmed Mukhlef, 35, a teacher who fled early Sunday with his wife and two children while carrying a white bedsheet tied to a stick.

“I don’t care if my house is bombed or looted, as long as I have my kids and wife safe with me,” Mukhlef said.

Marines said about 450 people had taken refuge in a vacant housing area in Husaybah under the control of Iraqi forces. Others were believed to have fled to relatives in nearby towns and villages. The region is in Al Anbar province, which is predominantly Sunni Arab.

U.S. officials have described Husaybah as a stronghold of the Al Qaeda in Iraq militant group and a major way station used to smuggle foreign fighters, weapons and ammunition from Syria to Baghdad and other cities.

Elsewhere, U.S. Army snipers killed eight insurgents Sunday in separate incidents in Ramadi, the provincial capital, the U.S. command said.

In Baghdad, two people died and nine hurt when a car bomb exploded near a tunnel, police Capt. Qassim Hussein said.