U.S. Copters Strike Western Iraqi Town

"QAIM, Iraq (AP) - The U.S. launched airstrikes Monday in a town on the Euphrates River in western Iraq, part of a three-day offensive against insurgents that has killed at least 36 militants since the fighting began, officials said.

In Baghdad, Iraq's oil minister narrowly survived an assassination attempt Monday when a roadside bomb blasted his seven-car convoy, killing three of his escorts, officials said.

No serious U.S. casualties have been reported in the "Iron Fist" offensive near the Syrian border by 1,000 Marines, soldiers and sailors against the al-Qaida in Iraq group.

A U.S. soldier died Saturday of wounds suffered after being hit by indirect fire in Ramadi, a militant stronghold 70 miles west of the capital, the military said. The death raised to 1,936 the number of U.S. military members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003."
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