American troops bombarded a dusty border town with air strikes and tank fire Friday, capturing 100 militants in the third major recent attempt to uproot tenacious insurgents who are believed to use the region to sneak foreign suicide bombers in from Syria. Four suicide attacks around Iraq, including one in the capital, killed 11 people as rebels seeking to lead Iraq into a civil war intensified the pace and scope of attacks against Iraq's still-weak security forces. More than 60 people have died in suicide attacks over the past two days. In a campaign codenamed Romhe, Arabic for spear, about 1,000 Marines and Iraqi forces, backed by battle tanks, fought their way into Karabilah in the volatile Anbar province, according to a report of the Associated Press. During daylong battles, Marines and Iraqi soldiers fought "insurgents holed up in buildings within the city," Marine Capt. Jeffrey Pool said from Ramadi, the provincial capital. "Coalition aircraft using precision-guided munitions destroyed these targets. Only buildings occupied by insurgents firing on Marines and Iraqi soldiers were bombed. Three buildings were confirmed destroyed," Pool said. No American or Iraqi military casualties were reported. In other violence, a suicide car bomber killed five Iraqis, including two civilians, and wounded 10 others in Fallujah, Pool said. The target was Fallujah's mayor and police brigade commander for the Interior Ministry's new public order unit, Maj. Gen. Mahdi Sabih, police said. He escaped unharmed.
