Hundreds of U.S. troops combed through a village near the Syrian border Sunday, breaking into houses and fighting sporadic gun battles with gunmen on the second day of a new offensive against Al Qaeda insurgents.
At least eight militants were killed, the U.S. military said, during Operation Iron Fist.
Many residents fled Sadah village into Syria before the offensive began, witnesses said, and the 1,000 U.S. troops involved appeared to be widening the sweep into two nearby towns.
In Karabila, troops with loudspeakers warned residents to stay inside their homes for their own safety Sunday, witnesses said. In Rumana, a town on the other side of the Euphrates River, helicopters fired on several houses, witnesses said.
A U.S. military spokeswoman in Baghdad said she could not immediately confirm that the offensive had expanded from Sadah to Karabila and Rumana.
No U.S. casualties were reported in the offensive, which is aimed at rooting out Al Qaeda militants the military believes have been using Sadah as a “sanctuary,” closing insurgent supply routes and stemming violence ahead of Iraq’s crucial vote on a new constitution Oct. 15.
Al Qaeda in Iraq, however, claimed to have captured two U.S. Marines participating in the offensive and threatened in a Web statement issued Sunday to kill them within 24 hours.
The statement’s authenticity could not be verified. A U.S. military spokesman said he believed the claim was false.
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Compiled from news services and edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Scott Kleinberg (skleinberg@tribune.com)
