US in town battle with rebels

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.

In Baghdad, a leading Sunni Arab politician, Adnan al-Dulaimi, called for a halt to US and Iraqi military operations against cities in order to encourage disaffected Sunnis to join the political process and vote in national elections next month.

The US commander of the joint force, Col Stephen W Davis, said that by late Sunday, his troops had moved "about halfway" through Husaybah, a market town along the Euphrates River about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad.