U.S. Marine Jets Bomb Two Bridges in Iraq (AP)

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. Marine jets Tuesday attacked two bridges across the Euphrates River near the Syrian border to prevent insurgents from using them to move foreign fighters and munitions into major cities, the U.S. command said.

A Marine statement said U.S. and Iraqi forces also destroyed a "foreign fighter safe house," killed two foreigners and arrested three others during a raid Tuesday in the same area as the bridge attack.

The fighting occurred a day after U.N. chief
Kofi Annan said
Iraq had become an even greater terrorist center than the former Taliban-ruled
Afghanistan. Attacks attributed to al-Qaida's wing in Iraq have increased in the Baghdad area and western Iraq.

A Marine statement said F/A-18 jets dropped bombs shortly after midnight on two light bridges near Karabilah, about 185 miles west of Baghdad.

"The purpose of the strike was to prevent al-Qaida in Iraq terrorists from using the structures," the U.S. statement said. "The munitions used in the strike were designed to crater the bridges, rendering them inoperable but not destroying them."

Semper Fi