The U.S. Army launched a major combat operation Friday as some 1,000 Marines and Iraqi soldiers were deployed to track down gunmen and foreign fighters in a western province near the Syrian border.
Operation Spear commenced in the pre-dawn hours in Anbar province, the military said. The operation started a day after Air Force Brig. Gen. Don Alston described the Syrian border the "worst problem" in terms of stemming the influx of foreign fighters into Iraq.
Also Friday, a suicide car bomber slammed into a loaded fuel tanker as it drove through Baghdad's eastern suburbs, killing two people and wounding another six, police said, according to The AP.
The U.S. military said a child was killed during an "escalation of force" incident between a vehicle and an Army foot patrol in western Baghdad at about 9 p.m. Thursday. Iraqi police Sgt. Najim Abdullah said a 10-year-old boy was killed while walking on a street.
Elsewhere, a suicide car bomber rammed into an Iraqi army convoy in northern Iraq, injuring at least seven people.
