Baghdad, Iraq ? A team of kidnappers grabbed two Americans and a Briton on Thursday in a dawn raid on their home on a leafy Baghdad street — a bold abduction that underlines the increasing danger for foreigners in the embattled capital as violence soars ahead of national elections planned for early next year.

West of the capital, U.S. forces launched attacks Thursday in the Sunni insurgent strongholds of Fallujah and Ramadi, killing up to 60 insurgents in strikes against allies of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a military statement said. The military said the “foreign fighters” were killed near Fallujah. Fallujah General Hospital said they were treating 14 wounded, mainly women and children.

The military launched what it called a “precision strike” against a house in Fallujah and followed it with a second strike in a nearby town. The second strike destroyed three buildings allegedly used by Zarqawi’s network.

Also Thursday, three U.S. Marines assigned to 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed by hostile fire in separate incidents in the western Anbar province while conducting security operations, the military said. One Marine died at the scene and the two others died later of their wounds. No other details were released.

The U.S. Embassy identified the kidnapped Americans as Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong, but the identity of the British man was not disclosed.

The three worked for Gulf Services Co., a United Arab Emirates-based construction company.