10 Marines killed near Falluja
Marines conducting 'counter-insurgency' operations

Friday, December 2, 2005; Posted: 12:01 p.m. EST (17:01 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A roadside bomb Thursday killed 10 Marines and
wounded 11 others while they were on nighttime "foot patrol near Falluja,"
the Marine Corps said Friday.
The bomb was "fashioned from several large artillery shells," the Marine
Corps said.

The attack is one of the deadliest in recent months. In August a homemade
bomb killed 14 Marines and a civilian interpreter just south of Haditha in
western Iraq.

The Marines attacked Friday were from Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine
Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward).

The latest deaths bring the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq to 2,123.

Marines have been conducting "counterinsurgency operations" in the Falluja
and Ramadi areas ahead of the December 15 elections.

But the incident in Falluja was not part of the large-scale operations being
conducted.

Operation Shank, on the other hand, is targeting Ramadi, which lies on the
Euphrates River and has become a haven for insurgents affiliated with Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq. His group has used the river as a
highway to other cities, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch has
said.

The coalition offensive there is aimed at rooting out the insurgency and
stabilizing the area in preparation for the elections.

In Baquba, which lies on the Diyala River northeast of Baghdad, gunmen
targeted two brothers who serve on Iraq's electoral board, killing one and
wounding the other, police in Baquba said.

Police said that the gunmen were dressed in Iraqi army uniforms.

Majid Jabbar Brisem al-Hamdani was killed about 2 a.m. Friday, police said.

His brother, Hamed Jabbar al-Hamdani, who also served on the Independent
Electoral Commission of Iraq and was head of al-Zaghamiya election center,
was wounded and hospitalized.

Al-Hamdani told CNN the incident will not deter him from doing his job, and
he plans to return to his position after he recovers.

The attack came amid heightened security measures for the elections.

Iraq's government has banned non-Iraqi Arabs from traveling to Iraq until
further notice, said Brig. Gen. Adnan Abdul Rahman, an official with Iraq's
Ministry of Interior. He said the ban would be in effect until some point
after the vote.

The ban took effect on Thursday and also applies to diplomats, said the
director of Royal Jordanian Airlines at Baghdad's International Airport.

The Associated Press reported that Jordan's airline also prevented one of
its Egyptian correspondents from boarding a plane to Baghdad.

Meanwhile, both coalition forces and insurgents are engaged in a propaganda
campaign.

Coalition spokesman U.S. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch strongly disputed reports of
widespread insurgent attacks in Ramadi on Thursday. He said that one attack,
involving a rocket-propelled grenade, occurred Thursday and that it caused
no damage or casualties. (Watch report on propaganda war -- 2:21)

The Defense Department is struggling to defend a military program that pays
Iraqi media to publish favorable stories about the war and the
reconstruction effort. (Full story)

CNN's Arwa Damon, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Mike Mount contributed to this
report.

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broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this
report.

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