Terrified Residents Flee Iraq Fighting

"BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Scores of terrified Iraqis fled a besieged town Sunday, waving white flags and hauling their belongings to escape a second day of fighting between U.S. Marines and al-Qaida militants along the Syrian border. U.S. and Iraqi troops battled insurgents house-to-house, the U.S. military said.

Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, a U.S. military spokesman, told reporters in Baghdad that none of the 3,500 U.S. and Iraqi troops had been killed since the assault on Husaybah, 200 miles northwest of the capital, began Saturday.

"We are having contact with the enemy, but we are not meeting stiff resistance," Alston said Sunday. "They are using small-arms fire."

In a statement late Sunday, the U.S. Marines said American jets struck at least 10 targets Sunday in Husaybah, a market town along the Euphrates River valley that used to have a population of about 30,000."
MyWay