28 militants killed as US offensive widens in Iraq

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.

Al Qaida in Iraq yesterday claimed to have taken two Marines captive during the fighting and threatened to kill them within 24 hours unless all female Sunni detainees were released from US and Iraqi prisons in the country. The US military said the claim appeared false.