Battle on the Syrian Border

Due to problems with my image server, the maps will be down

The Marine Battle on the Syrian border at which nearly 100 enemy have been
reported killed now turns out to be a heavily fortified area. The Los
Angeles Times has correspondent Solomon Moore approximately 4 km northwest (Rabit)
from where fighting is taking place referred to in accounts as the Ramana-Obeidi
area. (The first map below from Microsoft Encarta shows variations of the place names) It is in the
cultivated zone right on the edge of the Al Jazira desert, about 5 km from the
Syrian border. From the LA Times account, the Marines approached on the south
side of the river, and took mortar fire from towns on the north side of the
Euphrates. The Marines crossed the river, using bridging and assaulted into the
town.

In nearby Sabah, New Ubaydi, and Karabilah, insurgents fired mortar rounds
at Marine convoys along the river's southern edge. Marines who pursued
attackers in those towns took part in house-to-house combat against dozens of
well-armed insurgents. One Marine was walking into a house when an insurgent
hiding in the basement fired through a floor grate, killing him. Another
Marine, who was retrieving a wounded comrade inside a house, suffered shrapnel
wounds when an insurgent threw a grenade through a window.

The area is a few kilometers to the south of Qaim/Qusabayah, where a Marine
border post has been the subject of repeated attacks. The Chicago
Tribune and The Associated Press have more details on the degree of
fortification of the towns in which fighting is now taking place.

At the vanguard of the assault, Marines who swept into the Euphrates River
town of Obeidi confronted an enemy they had not expected to find — and one
that attacked in surprising ways. As they pushed from house to house in early
fighting, trying to flush out the insurgents who had attacked their column
with mortar fire, they ran into sandbagged emplacements behind garden walls.
They found a house where insurgents were crouching in the basement, firing
upward through slits hacked at ankle height in the ground-floor walls, aiming
at spots that the Marines' body armor did not cover

The situation described by the Los Angeles Times is plotted in the Keyhole map below. The
Marines appear to have a blocking force in the desert between the towns and the
Syrian border and are conducting operations against enemy in towns on the
northern bank of the Euphrates.

(My apologies for having mislabeled Rabit as 'Ribat')

Update

Bill
Roggio has many more details. The operation is codenamed Matador. Donald
Sensing has some additional stuff.