At least one US marine and 17 alleged al-Qaeda fighters were killed as US and Iraqi forces yesterday moved house-to-house in their fight to take control of a town near the border with Syria.
A force of 1,000 Iraqi soldiers and 2,500 US marines, sailors and soldiers launched an operation early on Saturday focusing on the far western Iraqi town of Husayba in an attempt to flush al-Qaeda fighters from the region.
The sweep, called Operation Steel Curtain, is aimed at preventing foreign fighters from entering the country. US officials have long held that al-Qaeda affiliated fighters cross into Iraq from Syria, usually through the upper Euphrates valley where Husayba is located.
"While conducting clearing operations in Husayba, [the marine] was killed by enemy small arms fire," the military said.
The death brings to at least 2,047 the number of US military personnel who have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, according to an AFP tally based on the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, an independent group that follows US casualties in Iraq.
At least 17 suspected insurgents have been killed since Steel Curtain began.
"Many more are suspected of being killed, but coalition forces haven't been able to confirm those numbers yet," the military said late on Sunday.
US and Iraqi soldiers are "clearing the city, house by house, as the al-Qaeda in Iraq-led insurgents continue to plant improvised explosive devices throughout the city and fire on the marines and Iraqi soldiers," the statement said.
The goal of Steel Curtain "is to restore security along the Iraqi-Syrian border and destroy the al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist network operating throughout this area," Brigadier General Donald Alston told journalists in Baghdad.
Until recently Husayba had a population of some 30,000, but most residents are believed to have fled. The Iraqi troops and marines are currently housing and feeding some 450 local civilians.
Steel Curtain was more ambitious than previous US-backed operations because it was to establish a permanent Iraqi-US military border presence.
"The construction of border forts is well under way," Alston said. "That capability had not been there before."
Warplanes also hit 10 targets "using precision-guided munitions" to hit the target "while limiting collateral damage".
Separately an Australian special forces soldier was reported killed in an accident.
Some 1,320 Australian military personnel are deployed to the Middle East under Operation Catalyst, the Australian Defense Force's contribution to Iraq's rehabilitation and reconstruction.
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