BAGHDAD, Iraq -Hundreds of U.S. Marines pushed through a lawless region on the Syrian frontier yesterday after battling past well-armed militants fighting from basements, rooftops and sandbag bunkers. Insurgents kidnapped the provincial governor as a bargaining chip.
As many as 100 insurgents were killed in the first 48 hours of Operation Matador, as American troops cleared villages along the Euphrates River then crossed in rafts and on a pontoon bridge, the U.S. command said. Many of the dead remained trapped under rubble after attack planes and helicopter gunships pounded their hideouts.
At least three Marines were reported killed and 20 wounded during the first three days of the offensive --the biggest U.S. operation since Fallujah was taken from extremists six months ago.
The operation was launched after U.S. intelligence showed followers of Iraq's most wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, took refuge in the remote desert region --a haven for smugglers and insurgent suppliers. The fighters were believed to have fled to Anbar Province after losses in Iraqi cities.
After intense fighting with militants entrenched on the south bank of the Euphrates River early in the operation, Marines saw only light resistance yesterday and advanced through sparsely populated settlements along a 12-mile stretch to the border with Syria, according to a Chicago Tribune reporter embedded with the assault, James Janega.
Gunmen kidnapped Anbar's governor yesterday morning and told his family he would be released only when U.S. forces withdrew from Qaim, the town 200 miles west of Baghdad where the offensive began late Saturday. Gov. Raja Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi was seized as he drove from Qaim to the provincial capital of Ramadi, his brother, Hammad, said.
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