Terrified residents flee Iraq fighting

The US commander of the joint force, Col. Stephen W. Davis, told The Associated Press late Sunday that his troops had moved "about halfway" through Husaybah, a market town along the Euphrates River about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad.

At least 36 insurgents have been killed since the assault began Saturday and about 200 men have been detained, Davis said. He did not give a breakdown of nationalities of the detainees. Many were expected to be from a pro-insurgent Iraqi tribe.

Davis would not comment on US and Iraqi government casualties but said the militants were putting up a tough fight because "this area is near and dear to the insurgents, particularly the foreign fighters."

"This has been the first stop for foreign fighters, and this is strategic ground for them," he said by telephone.

Earlier Sunday, Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, a US military spokesman, told reporters in Baghdad that none of the 3,500 US and Iraqi troops had been killed so far.

The US Marines said American jets struck at least 10 targets around the town Sunday and that the US-Iraqi force was "clearing the city, house by house," taking fire from insurgents holed up in homes, mosques and schools.

Residents of the area said by satellite phone that sounds of explosions diminished somewhat Sunday, although bursts of automatic weapons fire could be heard throughout the day. The residents said coalition forces warned people by loudspeakers to leave on foot because troops would fire on vehicles.

"I left everything behind my car, my house," said Ahmed Mukhlef, 35, a teacher who fled Husaybah early Sunday with his wife and two children while carrying a white bed sheet tied to a stick. "I don't care if my house is bombed or looted, as long as I have my kids and wife safe with me."

The Marines said in a statement that about 450 people had taken refuge in a vacant housing area in Husaybah under the control of Iraqi forces. Others were believed to have fled to relatives in nearby towns and villages in the predominantly Sunni Arab area of Anbar province.