About 1,000 U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces launched attacks in western Iraq, the U.S. military said Friday. The operation, dubbed Quick Strike, started Wednesday with Iraqi soldiers and Marines positioning their units, said a military statement. They focused on an area centered around the cities of Haditha, Haqlaniyah, and Parwana, about 130 miles northwest of Baghdad.
On Friday, U.S. and Iraqi troops, including Special Operations forces, moved into the city of Haqlaniyah, the Marine statement said. U.S. jets conducted an airstrike on insurgents hiding in buildings outside of the town.
Residents in the area said U.S. and Iraqi forces had cordoned off Haqlaniyah, about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, and began conducting house to house searches.
In a statement issued Friday, the U.S. military said an Abrams tank fired at "rebels" armed with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades south of Haqlaniyah while other tanks fired on another building.
Four more U.S. service members were killed in action Wednesday, the military said - three in Baghdad and one in Ramadi. A roadside bomb late Wednesday killed three U.S. soldiers in Baghdad, the U.S. command said. A Marine was killed Wednesday by small arms fire in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province 70 miles west of Baghdad, the command added.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari met on Friday with the country's top Shiite Muslim cleric and the two discussed the new constitution, which is to be finished in 10 days. Al-Jaafari arrived amid tight security to Najaf and went straight into the home of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani near Shiite Islam's holiest shrine in Iraq.
