Fighting Reported Across Iraq

7 September 2005 (RFE/RL) -- U.S. military jets bombed targets in Iraq near the Syrian border on 6 September where Al-Qaeda has reportedly expanded its presence.
The air strikes took place near Al-Karabilah, about 300 kilometers west of Baghdad. Two bridges and a building used by the insurgents were targeted.

Elsewhere, thousands of civilians fled Tal Afar -- a predominantly ethnic Turkoman city some 400 kilometers northwest of Baghdad -- where U.S. and Iraqi soldiers are battling insurgents for control of the city.

Some 700 families reportedly fled for the nearby village of Taha where officials struggled to house them.

To the south, U.S. troops on 6 September handed the Iraqi Army control of one of the their bases in the Shi'ite city of Al-Najaf, after the area was deemed relatively safe.

Also on 6 September, the U.S. command reported four more Americans had been killed in action.

(AP)

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