US forces launch another offensive in Iraq

"HAQLANIYAH, Iraq: Some 2,500 US troops along with Iraqi forces launched their second major offensive in western Iraq in a week on Tuesday, sweeping into three towns to take them back from insurgents who drove out Iraqi forces and killed Marines there last month.

The US military announced its first casualties of the offensives, with four service members killed by roadside bombs during the fighting and a fifth elsewhere. The military launched the offensive in a cluster of cities in the Euphrates River valley about 220km north-west of Baghdad.

Code-named River Gate, it was the largest US offensive in the troubled Anbar region of western Iraq this year, the military said. It also included hundreds of Iraqi troops, the largest Iraq contingent of any of the offensives this year."
Pak Tribune