U.S. Launches Another Major Assault in Western Iraq

At Haditha Hospital, Dr. Abdul Qaider Obaidi, said the Marines also broke into the hospital and searched the facility, arresting the director, Waleed Hadeethi and his assistant. Obaidi said the Marines accused the two men of treating al Qaeda fighters. "They are using the hospital as a base for the combat operations," he added. Obaidi said he had no information about civilian casualties.

The American military said militants attacked the Haditha Hospital earlier this year with a suicide car bomb. More than half of the hospital was destroyed in the attack. Insurgents established fortified firing positions in the hospital and used patients and staff as human shields, the military said in a statement. "They attacked Marines from the hospital and later retreated from the Marine counterattack," according to the statement.

A statement posted on the Wihda mosque in Hit in Anbar that claimed to be from al Qaeda in Iraq denied that dozens of the organization's members have been killed in the assaults. The U.S. military had announced that 1,941 fighters have been killed.

The statement disputed that. "This is a dirty game just to increase the spirits of their soldiers and that only 20 were killed," it read.

Meanwhile in Baghdad on Tuesday, a suicide car bomber drove a vehicle into a checkpoint at the perimeter of the fortified Green Zone that houses the U.S. Embassy and the transitional Iraqi government. Initial reports from witnesses said 10 people were killed. Iraqi security forces blocked access to the area for several hours.

The checkpoint is the entry point used by Iraqi and Western journalists and by Iraqi civilians who work inside. Vehicular access to the checkpoint is supposed to be restricted, but Iraqi security forces often allow drivers in who merely wave pre-paid telephone cards as identification.

Witnesses said the bomber sped straight toward the concrete barriers and barbed wire at the checkpoint, instead of a mandatory U-turn required by the presence of the barriers.

Iraqi security forces have taken over primary protection of the checkpoint in recent days. They have shot randomly at cars in the area, causing passers-by to run for cover.

Elsewhere in Iraq, the police chief of Mussayyib survived an assassination attempt in the town, 40 miles south of Baghdad, said Capt. Muthanna Ahmed, the press officer of the Babil police command. Ahmed said five of the chief's body guards were wounded, one seriously. Iraqi security forces are frequently targeted by insurgents.

One Iraqi soldier was killed and two others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded at an Iraqi army convoy in the northern city of Kirkuk, said Maj. Gen. Anwar Hama Ameen, commander of the second brigade.

Two senior police officers were also killed Monday night when armed men opened fire on their vehicle in central part of the city, said Col. Adel Zain Al Abideen of the Kirkuk police.

Armed men killed a captain of the emergency police, Zain Al Abideen said.

Special correspondents Bassam Sebti in Baghdad and Saad Sarhan in Najaf contributed to this report.