First US casualties reported in border battle

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.

The US commander of the joint force, Col Stephen Davis, said his troops had moved “about halfway” through Husaybah, a market town along the Euphrates River about 200 miles north-west of Baghdad.