US and Iraqi troops battled insurgents house-to-house yesterday, the third day of an assault against al-Qaida-led militants in a town near the Syrian border as the US command reported the first American death in the operation.

US and Iraqi troops battled house-to-house with insurgents today, the third day of a major offensive against al-Qaida insurgents in a town near Iraq’s border with Syrian, and the US command reported the first American death in the operation.

US troops battled insurgents holed up in houses and driving explosives-laden vehicles in a second town near the Syrian border, killing 28 in an expansion of their two-day-old offensive chasing al Qaida fighters along the Euphrates River valley, the military said.

A suicide car bomber struck worshippers leaving a Shiite mosque in Tuz Khormato in northern Iraq today, killing at least 10 people and wounding 21 others.

A suicide car bomb killed an Iraqi Shiite politician and three others near Baghdad as they were heading to parliament today, an attack likely to further fuel tensions between the minority Sunni Arabs and the country’s Shiite majority.

More than 1,000 US troops and Iraqi forces launched Operation Sword today in a bid to crush insurgents and foreign fighters in western Iraq, making it the third major offensive in the area in recent weeks.

A suicide car bomber wearing a police uniform killed at least 15 traffic policemen and wounded 100 others during morning roll call at a police headquarters in an oil-rich northern Kurdish city, the second such attack in as many days.

A SUICIDE bomb ripped through a popular Baghdad kebab restaurant at lunchtime yesterday, killing at least 23 people and wounding 36.

A suicide bombing ripped through a popular Baghdad kebab restaurant at lunchtime today, killing at least 16 people and wounding 25.

A joint US-Iraqi offensive has killed some 50 insurgents so far in battles that raged today around a blistering hot frontier town in the American military’s latest campaign to stop foreign fighters from pouring through neighbouring Syria.

THE US military launched a major combat operation yesterday as 1,000 US Marines and Iraqi soldiers fanned out to track down insurgents and foreign fighters in a volatile western province straddling Syria.

The US military launched a major combat operation with 1,000 Marines and Iraqi soldiers today in north-western Iraq.

AMERICAN fighter jets flattened a suspected insurgent safe house near the Syrian border and hundreds of US troops conducted house-to-house searches in remote desert villages for followers militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

A car bomb exploded near a busy market and cinema in eastern Baghdad today, killing at least 17 people and wounding 65, police said.

Two US Marines were killed and 14 wounded when an explosive device hit their troop transport vehicle during a large American offensive being fought against suspected insurgents in western Iraq, the military said today.

US FORCES hunting down followers of Iraq’s most wanted terrorist pushed into a lawless region north of the Euphrates River near the Syrian border yesterday.