3 Marines Killed 2 Wounded Violent

3 Marines Killed, 2 Wounded

Violent clashes broke out Tuesday into early Wednesday between guerrillas and US Marines in the vicinity of Fallujah, according to LBC (Lebanese satellite television news).

Al-Jazeerah is reporting US airstrikes on Ramadi, with deaths of civilians.

Ash-Sharq al-Awsat reports that two explosions in Samarra killed 5 persons and wounded 6.

LBC also reported that an assassination attempt against Minister of Justice Malik Dohan Hasan left his driver dead, but failed to strike the minister. It was the second attempt on his life in the past two weeks.

Guerrillas in Babil province killed three US Marines and wounded two on Monday. [The source misreads Babil as Irbil, but this is an error.] One can only speculate that these were radical fundamentalists of the Ansar al-Islam sort, still operating in the north.

Ash-Sharq al-Awsat says that two Kurdish troops were killed in Irbil on Tuesday as they attempted to defuse a roadside bomb.

Meanwhile, a branch of the National Islamic Resistance claimed responsibility for shooting down a British troop transport on Sunday, which killed 10. The crash is still being investigated.