Marines capitalize on lull in fighting

? Capitalizing on a lull in fighting Tuesday, hundreds of U.S. Marines pushed through a lawless region on the Syrian frontier after intense battles along the Euphrates River with well-armed militants fighting from basements, rooftops and sandbag bunkers.

Insurgents kidnapped the provincial governor as a bargaining chip.

Iraq’s foreign minister, meanwhile, told the Associated Press that some of Iraq’s neighbors have become unnerved by the American-backed attempt to establish a robust democratic government in Baghdad and still are not doing enough to stop militants from trying to undermine the newly elected government.

As many as 100 insurgents were killed in the first 48 hours of Operation Matador, as American troops cleared villages along the meandering Euphrates then crossed in rafts and on a pontoon bridge, the U.S. command said. Many of the dead remained trapped under rubble after attack planes and helicopter gunships pounded their hideouts.

At least three Marines were reported killed and 20 wounded during the first three days of the offensive — the biggest U.S. operation since Fallujah was taken from extremists six months ago.

The operation was launched after U.S. intelligence showed followers of Iraq’s most wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, took refuge in the remote desert region — a haven for smugglers and insurgent suppliers. The fighters were believed to have fled to Anbar Province after losses in Iraqi cities.

After intense fighting with militants entrenched on the south bank of the Euphrates River early in the operation, Marines saw only light resistance Tuesday and advanced through sparsely populated settlements along a 12-mile stretch to the border with Syria, according to a Chicago Tribune reporter embedded with the assault, James Janega.

Gunmen kidnapped Anbar’s governor Tuesday morning and told his family he would be released only when U.S. forces withdrew from Qaim, the town where the offensive began late Saturday. Gov. Raja Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi was seized as he drove from Qaim to the provincial capital of Ramadi, his brother, Hammad, told The Associated Press.

Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, said: “We don’t respond to insurgent or terrorist demands.”