- Thousands of Iraqis have fled fighting between US troops
and insurgents in the west of the country, aid workers say.
-
- The head of the Iraqi Red Crescent in the country told
the BBC that about 1,000 families had been displaced from the border town
of Qaim.
-
- Four hundred families had moved into schools and mosques
in the town of Mashari, and there was a need for tents and water, Said
Ismail Haqqi said.
-
- US forces say they have killed about 100 rebels in the
military operation.
-
- The US launched Operation Matador last Saturday in response
to a sharp rise in insurgent attacks throughout Iraq in recent weeks.
-
- More than 400 people have died in attacks since Iraq's
new government was announced on 28 April.
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- 'Roaming gunmen'
-
- New Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari extended a six-month-old
state of emergency on Friday, allowing Iraqi authorities to continue imposing
curfews and issuing arrest warrants in an effort to track down insurgents.
-
- In other violence in Iraq:
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- * Three Iraqis, two of them soldiers, are killed in a
car bomb attack in the central town of Baquba * One policeman is reportedly
killed when gunmen open fire on a patrol in western Baghdad * Mortars kill
three Iraqi soldiers at an army checkpoint in the southern town of Hilla,
AP reports * Gunmen ambush an interior ministry official in western Baghdad,
killing a guard, AP reports * A roadside bomb hits a US convoy on the road
leading to the Baghdad airport.
-
- The US has focused Operation Matador on Iraq's large,
remote western region of Anbar.
-
- The US military has said it believes that insurgents
shifted to the area after the attack on former bases in Falluja last year.
-
- Although military officials say 100 insurgents have been
killed, there has been little further resistance since initial confrontations
last weekend.
-
- Few insurgents have surfaced in the following days, leading
US commanders to suspect they have once again gone into hiding or fled
the area.
-
- Reports from the US military speak of air strikes on
insurgent safe houses in remote areas and searches in desert villages.
-
- An Associated Press correspondent in the town of Qaim
said heavily-armed fighters still controlled the streets.
-
- "We are trying to protect our city's entrances,
and we will prevent the US forces from entering the city," one insurgent
was reported as saying.
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- © BBC MMV
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4545357.stm
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