US offensive kills 29 in Iraq
A US offensive aimed at uprooting al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents in western Iraq before next week’s constitutional referendum killed 29 militants, including 20 who died when warplanes bombed an abandoned hotel they had commandeered, the military said today.
The fighting occurred yesterday during one of two offensives being conducted by thousands of US troops and hundreds of Iraqi soldiers in several Euphrates River towns that insurgents were virtually controlling after the withdrawal of most Iraqi police and soldiers.
