Four U.S. Marines were killed in combat Thursday in Iraq’s Anbar province, west of Baghdad, the U.S. military announced. Three of those Marines were assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, according to a military statement on Saturday. On Friday, the U.S. military announced the death of the fourth Marine, who was assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5. Thirty-eight U.S. troops have died in Iraq during July. Since the start of the war, 2,565 U.S. troops have died in Iraq. Seven Department of Defense civilian employees have also died in Iraq. Sunni mosques, cleric attacked Gunmen attacked two Sunni mosques early Saturday in Baghdad, The Associated Press reported. Muhammad Rassulluallah mosque in western Baghdad was sprayed with gunfire shortly after midnight, police said, adding that windows were shattered and walls damaged, according to AP. A guard was wounded. An hour later, nearby Ashra al-Mubashara mosque was stormed, but gunmen fled when Iraqi police arrived, AP cited officials as saying. Also, police said a regional leader of the Iraqi Border Protection force was killed in Karbala, AP reported. Four worshippers were killed in a separate mortar attack on a Sunni mosque in southern Baghdad hours earlier, Iraqi emergency police said. The AP also reported the killing of a Sunni cleric from a tribe opposed to al Qaeda in Iraq while driving in Samarra, 60 miles (97 kilometers) north of Baghdad, according to police. In other violence Saturday morning, 12 workers were wounded when a grenade exploded in an area of central Baghdad where day laborers line up for work, according to police. A road bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol wounded three civilians and three police officers in a north Baghdad neighborhood, police said. U.S. troops headed for Iraq About 3,200 members of the 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will start heading to Iraq on August 6. The announcement of their deployment came a day after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the Alaska-based 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team to stay an additional four months in Iraq. The division has been training and preparing for the past 10 months, according to an Army press release from Fort Bragg. Most of the paratroopers are infantry, but some are trained in military intelligence, engineering and police duties. Comments (0) Cease-fire offers rejected by Israel Filed under: midde east — shiny13 @ 6:06 pm Edit This U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returned to the Middle East Saturday, hours after Israel rejected a U.N. call for a three-day cease-fire. Rice is to meet Saturday night with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem, the first stop in her latest bid to negotiate an end to fighting. It has not been announced when she might travel to Beirut to meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. The United States does not support calls for an immediate cease-fire. The Bush administration has said Israel must be able to sufficiently weaken Hezbollah forces or hostilities would only start up again. On Saturday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that Israel had been counting on a victory to secure a political solution, but that such efforts have failed. “It’s clear to now that the Zionist enemy has not been able to reach a military victory. I’m not saying that. They said that. The whole world is saying that,” he said. The U.N.’s appeal for the cease-fire came from its emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland “so that we can evacuate wounded, evacuate children, evacuate the elderly and the disabled from the crossfire in Lebanon.” A third of the people killed in Lebanon have been children, he said. Israel government spokesman Avi Pazner said Israel rejects a temporary cease-fire for getting civilians out of southern Lebanon. “There is no need for a 72-hour temporary cease-fire because Israel has opened a humanitarian corridor to and from Lebanon,” Pazner told reporters. “The problem is completely different. It is the Hezbollah who is deliberately preventing the transfer of medical aid and of food to the population of southern Lebanon in order to create a humanitarian crisis which they want to blame Israel for.” Deal in works to end crisis Meanwhile, Hezbollah representatives and Lebanese cabinet ministers have reached an agreement in general — but with some major reservations — on a proposal to end the crisis, high-ranking Lebanese government officials say. Rice said she has only read news reports about the plan but said it appeared to have “some very good elements.” En route from Asia to the Middle East, Rice told reporters she expected the weekend talks to be intense and emotional because both sides are “under extreme pressure in a difficult set of circumstances.” She said she was not bringing a comprehensive plan to the table. Israeli spokesman Pazner said he believes her visit with Olmert will be fruitful. “This time, she comes to present concrete ideas,” he said. “She will be able to tell us exactly what kind of international force has to be sent here and what kind of resolution has to be passed by the United Nations.” The Israelis have called for an international force to police a buffer zone just north of the border with Lebanon to ensure that Hezbollah cannot use the southern part of the country to launch rockets. Israel began its operations against in southern Lebanon on July 12, after the Iranian-backed Hezbollah launched a cross-border raid, killing three soldiers and capturing two others. Five more soldiers were also killed. Since then, Lebanese Internal Security Forces said Saturday that 421 people have been killed and 1,661 have been wounded in Lebanon. Israeli officials said Friday that 52 Israelis — 33 soldiers and 19 civilians — have died and 1,233 Israelis — 110 soldiers and 1,123 civilians — have been wounded in the fighting. Hezbollah has not released any casualty figures, but Israeli military sources estimated Friday they have killed about 200 Hezbollah fighters. Lebanese cease-fire plan The Lebanese cease-fire plan, developed by Lebanese Prime Minister Siniora, will be presented to Rice. It calls for an immediate cease-fire, the release of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails and the return of two Israeli soldiers held by Hezbollah. The plan calls for the return of displaced Lebanese and negotiations between Israel and Lebanon concerning the disputed Shebaa farms under Israeli control. It also calls for the release of maps showing Israeli minefields near the Lebanese border; the deployment and strengthening of the Lebanese army; and the expansion of the U.N. force in the south. Although Hezbollah agreed to a cease-fire with Israel and a larger international presence in southern Lebanon, the group objected to “a robust force” of international peacekeepers, the sources said. Also, Hezbollah did not specifically agree to disarm, as Israel has demanded, the sources said. The plan does call for the Lebanese military to take control of southern Lebanon, along with the U.N. force. It also calls for the implementation of the Taef accords — which ended the Lebanese civil war in 1990 — which includes the disarming of all militias, the sources said. The question of the two Israeli soldiers being held by Hezbollah was not discussed at the cabinet meeting, the sources said. More civilian deaths Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike on a house in Nmeiriya in southern Lebanon on Saturday killed a woman and six children, Lebanese medical sources said. The bodies of nine Lebanese civilians, including three children and their parents, were found along Maarub-Dardghia road near Tyre Friday afternoon, said Civil Defense Officer Salam Daher. The family of five died after their car was hit by a missile and the other four died from shrapnel, he said. The bodies, which were decomposing, were found during efforts to recover the dead and evacuate towns in southern Lebanon, he said. Daher said the town of Deir Qanoun was one they were trying to evacuate but could not because of heavy shelling. Air assault continues The Israeli Air Force carried out 60 airstrikes overnight on Hezbollah locations and structures as the conflict entered its 18th day Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces said. Targets struck by the IDF were located chiefly in southern Lebanon and included 37 Hezbollah warehouses and locations, roads, bridges and cars, the IDF said. Source : ||{1}|| Also visit ||{1}|| for all your gfx needs !