U.S. airstrikes kill about 40 Iraq insurgents

updated 10:12 p.m. ET June 11, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. fighter planes launched air strikes on an Iraqi town near the Syrian border Saturday killing about 40 insurgents, the military said.

Seven precision-guided missiles were fired at heavily armed insurgents who were stopping and searching civilian cars at gunpoint near Karabilah, close to the volatile town of Qaim, the Marines said in a statement.

The insurgents were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, medium machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers and had "set up a barricade on a main road to the city and were threatening Iraqi civilians," the military said.

U.S. warplanes backed by helicopters launched air strikes that began at 11:40 a.m. and ended at 4 p.m. "once all the targets were destroyed," the military said. Approximately 40 insurgents were killed and there were no Marines casualties.

"The coalition aircraft and fighter jets and attack helicopters from the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing attacked the insurgent compound and surrounding area targeting the armed men," the statement said. "There are no reports of civilian casualties or collateral damage."

It was unclear if there were any foreign fighters among the slain insurgents. The region is known as a haven for Islamic extremists crossing in and out of Iraq across the Syrian border to attack U.S. and Iraqi security forces. The U.S. military launched two major counterinsurgent offensives in the area last month that killed an estimated 140 militants.

Since Thursday, insurgent attacks in Iraq's volatile Anbar province have claimed the lives of seven Marines. The bodies of 21 slain Iraqi men, some beheaded and most shot execution style, were found Friday in three separate locations near Qaim.

It is feared the bodies may belong to about 20 Iraqi soldiers who went missing Wednesday after leaving a military base bound for a vacation in Baghdad.

At least 1,693 U.S. military members have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Police attack
Earlier Saturday, a suicide bomber dressed as a policeman blew himself up during roll call at the heavily guarded headquarters of an elite commando unit as attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least 23 people.

The attack at the two-story Baghdad headquarters of the Wolf Brigade followed weeks of accusations against the Shiite Muslim-dominated force by Sunni Arab leaders, who accuse it of kidnapping and killing Sunnis, including clerics.

Jabr said the attacker was a former Wolf Brigade member who was targeting the commando force’s commander, Brig. Mohammed al-Quraishi.

“Today’s attack does not constitute an infiltration of the police forces,” Jabr said. “The only thing left of the bomber was his head and feet.”

Three people were killed in the blast, Jabr said, adding that police were searching for two of the suspect’s former colleagues. A witness, Maj. Falah al-Mahamdawi, said five people were killed and seven wounded. The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.

It was unclear how the attacker managed to enter the tightly guarded compound in eastern Baghdad’s Bab Sharqi neighborhood with his explosives undetected, but his police uniform may have helped him avoid the stringent checks in place.

People entering the compound, which also houses the 10-story Interior Ministry building, must go through metal detectors and be searched by policemen and dogs.

Al-Mahamdawi said the attacker was disguised as a policeman and detonated explosives during a roll call for new commandos.

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