SYRIA: US forces yesterday fought insurgents in the village of Sada in a fresh offensive to prevent infiltration by militants across the Syrian border.
About 1,000 US marines backed by helicopters and warplanes swept into Sada on Saturday with the declared aim of rooting out al-Qaeda elements in the region. No Iraqi troops took part in the operation, the fourth in the western Anbar province since May.
Last week the US military admitted that only one of 86 Iraqi brigades was fit to fight on its own, while two or three could take part in actions with US military support.
Eight militants were reported dead along with an unknown number of civilians, including women and children bombed by US aircraft while fleeing in cars. The majority of Sada's 2,000 residents have tribal connections across the nearby frontier and took refuge in Syria.
The offensive, dubbed "Iron Fist", broadened to take in two nearby towns, Karbila and Rumana. No fighting was reported in Qaim, the main population centre in the upper Euphrates area.
Sunni political leaders and clerics, angered over similar attacks on Qaim, Tal Afar, Hit, Hadith, Samarra and other Sunni towns, reacted to this offensive by accusing the US and the Shia-dominated government with trying to discourage or prevent Sunnis from casting their ballots in the October 15th constitutional referendum.
If two-thirds of voters in three majority Sunni provinces - Anbar, Ninevah and Diwaniyah - vote against the document, it will have to be scrapped, delaying the December election for a full-term parliament.
The vote on the constitution is also being jeopardised by a rift between president Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari, a Shia. Mr Talabani charged Dr Jaafari with ruling "like a dictator" and refusing to implement the Temporary Administrative Law, the country's interim constitution, which provides for resettlement of Kurds in Kirkuk and the surrounding oil-rich region.
Under Baathist rule, thousands of Kurds were driven from Kirkuk and Arabs, the majority Shias, were encouraged to take up residence there to prevent the Kurds, who seek a separate state, from seizing the northern oil fields. Mr Talabani has threatened to submit a motion of no-confidence in the government, undermining its credibility ahead of the referendum.
