US Marine, 17 insurgents dead in west Iraq assault [Steel Curtain]

za.today.reuters.com ^ | 07 November 2005 | Reuters

[davidosborne]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces killed at least 17 insurgents as they swept through a town on the Syrian border and one U.S. Marine was killed, the military and reporters in the town said on Monday.

On the third day of Operation Steel Curtain in Qusayba in western Iraq, the U.S. military said troops were moving through the town, whose 30,000 residents appear mostly to have fled, clearing out insurgents in house-to-house searches.

The military said in a statement one Marine was shot dead on Sunday in the biggest operation in the mainly Sunni Arab desert province of Anbar since the battle for Falluja a year ago.

Minority Sunni insurgents, allied with al Qaeda Islamists, are fighting the U.S. occupation and Shi'ite-led government.

A New York Times reporter travelling with the Marines said that a patrol had been searching a house that appeared to be empty when they were met with a hail of gunfire which killed one Marine and drove the others outside.

The insurgent gunman was killed by other Marines as he tried to flee from the roof, the reporter said.

[davidosborne]

Steel Curtain UPDATAE ..

[musicman]

"CNN quoted troops in the town as saying that between 60 and 80 insurgents had been killed in the operation but a military statement late on Sunday put the insurgent death toll at 17."

Maybe it's only 17 dead "freedom fighters" because Fema hasn't shown up yet to count the dead one's in the "remodeled" houses???.....

I was kinda hopin that they were just counting the dead ones on the Iraqi side of the border, not the dead ones dressed in burkas trying to run like heck back to Syria and got nailed...

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[armydawg1]

When doing this house cleaning, a few accidental border crossings would send a clear message to Syria. "Oh my God! We killed some of the enemy on your side of the border? We promise not to do that again........unless we have to."