US launches assault in western Iraq

BAGHDAD -- The US military yesterday launched a second major assault in less than a week in western Iraq, hunting for foreign fighters whose attacks have increased in the weeks leading up to the Oct. 15 national referendum on a new Iraqi constitution.

About 2,500 US troops and hundreds of Iraqi soldiers took part in the operation, named River Gate, the military said in statements. The offensive centered on Haditha, Haqlaniyah, and Barwana, Sunni cities located in the Euphrates River valley in western Anbar province.

Meanwhile, Operation Iron Fist, another assault launched four days ago in the Qaim region of Anbar province near the Iraqi-Syrian border, continued as troops searched for fighters connected to Al Qaeda in Iraq who freely roamed the streets of Sadah and surrounding towns.

The US military said three soldiers and a Marine died in combat actions on Monday. Three soldiers assigned to a Marine combat team were killed by an improvised explosive device in two separate attacks in Haqlaniyah. A Marine died from an IED in Karabilah in the operation near the Syrian border, according to the military.

The military said the offensives are aimed at reclaiming the cities from insurgents and cutting off routes used to smuggle weapons and militants to cities in other parts of Iraq. In announcing the launch of Operation River Gate yesterday, the military said the goal was to deny insurgents the ability to operate in the three river cities and ''to free the local citizens from the terrorists' campaign of murder and intimidation of innocent women, children, and men."

Haditha, a city of 75,000 residents, is a key crossroads for Al Qaeda in Iraq's smuggling activities from the Syrian border, the military said. Once in Haditha, smugglers can go north to Mosul or continue to Ramadi, Fallujah, and Baghdad.

Most of the residents are farmers, fishermen, and former members of the Iraqi Army under the ousted government of Saddam Hussein. They gave accounts of the fighting to Post correspondents in the area.

Saad Mahdi Amiri, an Iraqi Army lieutenant who was among the forces engaged in the assault, said most of the neighborhoods of all three cities were under control of the joint forces by late afternoon. He said 86 suspects were detained. Two large weapons caches were discovered in Haqlaniyah, Amiri said.

''The armed men are the remnants of Al Qaeda who escaped from Qaim to these areas, and we are chasing them here," Amiri said.

Ibrahim Abdul Karim, 50, a teacher and resident of Haditha, said the US forces broke into his house and searched all of the occupants. He said they tested their hands for explosives.

''The Marines did not give us any time to allow the women to put on the hajib [head scarf] and go out with proper clothes," he said. ''They broke into the house like Holako," he said, referring to a famous Mongolian barbarian who invaded the Arab homeland and burned Baghdad centuries ago.

Meanwhile in Baghdad yesterday, a suicide car bomber drove a vehicle into a checkpoint at the perimeter of the fortified Green Zone that houses the US Embassy and the transitional Iraqi government. Initial reports from witnesses said 10 people were killed. Iraqi security forces blocked access to the area for several hours. The checkpoint is the entry point used by Iraqi and Western journalists and by Iraqi civilians who work inside.