Iraq Watch: November 7, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - As 'Operation Steel Curtain' moved into its third day, violence erupted elsewhere in the war-torn nation.

The joint military operation, consisting of approxamiltely 2,500 U.S. and 1,000 Iraqi forces, is designed to root out suspected militants from strongholds near the Syrian border.

At least 36 suspected insurgents and one U.S. Marine have been killed in the offensive. Nine U.S. service members have been wounded according to CNN.

In addition to the one U.S. service member killed in 'Operation Steel Curtain' the U.S. military announced the deaths of five U.S. military personal on Monday. Four Task Force Baghdad soldiers died in a VBIED attack south of Baghdad while another U.S. soldier was killed by an IED late Sunday near ad Dwar.

Six Iraqi soldiers and three civilians were killed in a roadside bomb explosion in the capital's volatile southern neighborhood of Dora. In eastern Baghdad, five people were killed and four wounded in a mortar blast near a Turkomen club.

Ahmed Hussein Al-Maliki, a journalist for the Tal Afar Today, was killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on him in the northern city of Mosul. Also in northern Iraq, a suicide car bomber struck Iraqi soldiers guarding oil installiations southwest of Kirkuk killing at least two and injuring 13.