U.S.: 100 Militants Killed In Iraq

Major Offensive Near Syrian Border Targets Zarqawi Followers

(CBS/AP) 
The offensives are part of stepped-up raids on suspected hideouts across the country, including a number near the Syrian border, where U.S. and Iraqi officials say foreign militants are entering the country to attack coalition forces.

The Chicago Tribune reported that more than 1,000 U.S. troops supported by fighter jets and helicopter gunships raided villages Sunday in and around Obeidi, about 185 miles west of Baghdad, in an operation expected to last several days.

The report, by a journalist embedded with the U.S. forces, said the offensive "was seeking to uproot a persistent insurgency in an area that American intelligence indicated has become a haven for foreign fighters flowing in from Syria."

Some U.S. forces were able to conduct limited raids north of the Euphrates and predator drones provided surveillance Sunday, but most troops were stuck south of the waterway as engineers tried to build a pontoon bridge there, the Tribune said.

It also quoted some Marines as saying residents of one riverside town turned off all their lights at night, apparently to warn neighboring towns of the approaching U.S. troops.

"Our analysis is that there's a foreign fighter flow from Syria," Col. Stephen Davis, commander of Marine Regimental Combat Team 2, told the Tribune. "The trademark of these folks is to be where we're not. We haven't got north of the river for a while."

The crackdown came amid insurgent violence that has killed more than 310 people since April 28, when a new Iraqi government was announced with seven positions left undecided. At least nine American servicemen were killed over the weekend.

Iraq's interim National Assembly on Sunday approved six more Cabinet members, including four more Sunni Arabs. But the Sunni man selected as human rights minister turned down the job because he didn't want to be selected on a sectarian basis, tarnishing the Shiite premier's bid to include the disaffected minority believed to be driving the insurgency.

The five new members were sworn in Monday. The rest of Cabinet also repeated the oath of office after new language was added at the request of Barham Salih, the Kurdish planning and development cooperation minister.

The ministers pledged their allegiance to a "federal, democratic" Iraq, which Salih said brought the wording of the oath in line with language in Iraq's transitional law.

Iraq's two main Kurdish factions, which hold 75 seats in the 270-member National Assembly, are pressing for a federal government that would give strong autonomy to the Kurdish north.

When complete, the new government is expected to include 17 Shiite ministers, eight Kurds, six Sunnis and a Christian. Three deputy premiers have been named — one each for the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, with the fourth held open for a woman.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari pledged Sunday to take "all necessary measures" to restore security in Iraq and said the government could impose martial law, if necessary, to fight the insurgents.