Five Marines die in vicious battle: paper

WASHINGTON - Five United States Marines were killed and nine wounded yesterday in one of the fiercest battles between US troops and Iraqi insurgents near the Syrian border, a newspaper reported.

A US defence official would not confirm or deny the report, saying the military was still awaiting reports from the region to get a complete picture.

The St Louis Post-Dispatch said dozens of Iraqi insurgents were also slain in the day-long battle.

Nearly 300 Iraqi insurgents from Fallujah and Ramadi launched an early offensive against Marines in an outpost right next to the border city of Husaybah, the report said.

They first set off a roadside bomb to lure Americans out of their base and then fired 24 mortars as the Marines responded to the attack.

The paper said at least nine Marines were wounded and more than 20 Iraqi fighters were captured in a 14-hour battle.

The Iraqi prisoners were taken to the Marines' main base, Camp Al Qaim, for questioning.

Cobra helicopter gunships were still strafing enemy positions around the soccer stadium near downtown Husaybah as medical evacuation helicopters carried wounded Marines back to Camp Al Qaim, the report said.

The Post-Dispatch said the insurgents apparently ignited the bomb as a decoy.

A Marine unit responding to the bomb pulled in front of the former Baath Party headquarters in the city, where they were met by rocket-propelled grenades and machine gun fire.

The US military said yesterday that two Iraqi civilians and one American soldier were killed in attacks in Baghdad.

The US soldier was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near a military convoy.

The death brought to 90 the number of US troops killed in violence since April 1.

Two Iraqi civilians were killed on Saturday and four wounded when 122mm rockets fired by insurgents fell short of a military camp and hit a civilian area, the military said.

Two US civilian contractors and one soldier were wounded in that attack.

An American soldier died of his wounds after an attack by Shiite militiamen near the holy city of Najaf on Saturday.

Meanwhile, two Japanese hostages were released in Baghdad, saying they had been moved from house to house during their three days in captivity but had been treated fairly well.

Jumpei Yasuda and Nobutaka Watanabe were unshaven and looked tired but in good health as they were handed over to Japanese diplomats at Baghdad's Um al-Qura mosque.

Yasuda, 30, a freelance journalist, and Watanabe, 36, a former member of the Japanese military with ties to a civic group, said they had been treated with respect after being taken hostage on Wednesday west of Baghdad.

"We were treated kindly," Yasuda said. "We had a good meal every day. I don't know the place where we were.

"We were caught around Abu Ghraib and after that we were blindfolded and changed house every day.

"We were released this morning. We are very glad and want to say thank you to everyone."

A Reuters cameraman was there when the men were handed over to the Muslim Clerics Association, a Sunni group which has facilitated the release of several groups of foreign hostages in Iraq, including three other Japanese released late last week.

Several foreigners are still missing, including two US soldiers, a US contractor, a Palestinian, a Dane, a Jordanian-born businessman and three Italians.

A fourth Italian was killed by his captors, who threatened to kill the other three if Italy did not withdraw its troops from Iraq.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq