Militants killed five US Marines, and authorities found 21 bodies near the Syrian border, where American and Iraqi troops bore down in two recent major operations aimed at crushing a tenacious insurgency.

FIVE US Marines have been killed in a roadside bomb blast in western Iraq.

Insurgents in western Iraq killed five US Marines and sliced the heads off three Iraqis, part of a group of 21 men whose bodies were found dumped in the desert near the Syrian border after being gagged and shot.

Five US Marines have been killed in a roadside bomb blast in western Iraq, the military said today.

US forces have conducted a raid to capture a "high value target" associated with Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in an area north-west of Baghdad and detained three people.

Rebels launched a wave of deadly attacks against police stations in Iraq's western Anbar province for the second day in a row today, killing at least 22 people.