US hits insurgent stronghold in western town

BAGHDAD -- American troops stormed through the western Iraqi town of Sadah near the Syrian border early yesterday, battling foreign fighters loyal to Al Qaeda, according to witnesses and the US military.

A force of 1,000 Marines, soldiers, and sailors took part in the assault, which the military dubbed ''Operation Iron Fist." The military had no immediate information about any American casualties.

The operation aimed to ''root out Al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists operating in the area and to disrupt terrorist support systems in and around the city," according to the military. Al Qaeda in Iraq, a group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is responsible for the most violent and deadliest attacks of the insurgency that followed the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The US military also announced yesterday that two American soldiers had been killed in action. One soldier was killed in Baghdad by a roadside bomb and the other in Baiji by a land mine.

For several months, insurgents in Sadah, about 7 miles from the Syrian border, have escalated their ''intimidation and murder campaign" against residents and local government officials, the US military said in a statement. That enabled the insurgents to travel more freely within the region.

After US and Iraqi forces retook control of Fallujah in November, the border town of Qaim became the center for Al Qaeda command and operations in the west. Since May, US forces have mounted more than a half-dozen assaults in the border area, a critical point where supplies and fighters crossing from Syria then head to other insurgent hot spots, including Ramadi, Mosul, Tal Afar, and Karabilah.

Twelve civilians were killed in an airstrike in Sadah on Friday night, said Ali Rawi, a physician at the hospital in nearby Qaim. Among the dead were seven women and children, he added. The bombs hit four houses, witnesses said.

Rawi's account could not be independently verified.

Mahmoud Obaidi, the mayor of Sadah, said US forces had dropped leaflets from helicopters asking citizens to report armed men. Power and water were cut off in the town, and all roads leading to it were blocked.

The town's bus station was jammed with residents trying to flee. Shukri Ahmed, a municipal employee, estimated that 70 percent of the residents had fled by yesterday morning, when US forces charged into the city.

Abdul Karim Hadeethi, a local religious leader, said the assault was brought on by Shi'ite Muslims who want to ensure that Sunnis do not vote in the Oct. 15 national referendum on a new constitution. Many Sunni Arab groups have rejected the proposed constitution and urged followers to vote against it.

The US military released about 500 Iraqi detainees from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison yesterday, the second and final part of a release of 1,000 this week in honor of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The move was also aimed at persuading Sunnis to vote in the upcoming referendum.

As Iraqi and American officials predicted, insurgent attacks have increased in the weeks leading up to the vote. In two attacks this week, more than 100 people died in sectarian violence apparently aimed at Iraq's Shi'ite majority.

On Thursday night, 85 people died in the northern city of Balad when three bombs detonated in public places crowded with people buying groceries and preparing for the beginning of the two-day weekend. The next morning, a car bomb exploded in a crowded market in Hilla, killing 14 people.

A leading Sunni group, the Iraqi Islamic Party, yesterday called the bombings ''sinful doings." The group pleaded for a halt to the fighting with the approach of Ramadan.