U.S. and Iraqi forces Monday battled insurgents for a third day near the Syrian border, in a push U.S. commanders say is aimed at cutting off the flow of weapons and fighters into Iraq's population centers.
U.S. authorities say one Marine has been killed in the fighting at Husaybah. A CNN reporter with the coalition force quotes a Marine commander as saying between 60 and 80 insurgents have been killed.
Another Marine told the network about 180 military-age males have been detained for questioning.
A U.S. statement says the coalition force is clearing the town of 30,000 people house-by-house, and says insurgents have planted homemade bombs throughout the area.
Elsewhere, at least nine people, including six Iraqi police officers, have been killed in a suicide bombing in south Baghdad. Separately, at least four people were killed and six others wounded when a mortar shell exploded in east Baghdad.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.