U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces blasted insurgents with attack aircraft and ground fire Friday along the volatile Euphrates River valley as the U.S. military launched a major offensive in western Iraq where 22 Marines were killed this week, AP reported. About 800 U.S. Marines and 180 Iraqi soldiers moved early Friday into Haqlaniyah, one of a cluster of towns in Anbar province around the Haditha Dam, believed to be a stronghold of Iraqi insurgents and foreign fighters. U.S. Abrams tanks battled insurgents armed with rifles and rocket propelled grenades, while U.S. warjets destroyed at least two buildings used by the rebels to fire on the Iraqi troops. Marines later destroyed two other buildings which they found booby-trapped with explosives, a U.S. military statement said. «The wires were connected to numerous 155mm artillery rounds scattered throughout both buildings,» the statement said. The offensive _ codenamed Operation Quick Strike _ is the third major campaign since May.
