IRAQ 2 highways into Baghdad closed; 6 Marines reportedly killed

The highways were closed to fix damage caused by several roadside bombs.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The U.S. military closed down two major highways into Baghdad on Saturday in the latest disruption caused by intensified attacks by anti-U.S. insurgents. U.S. and Iraqi negotiators reported progress in talks aimed at easing the fighting in Fallujah, while the besieged city saw its quietest day yet.
Elsewhere, U.S. Marines fought pitched battles against about 150 gunmen in Qaim, near the Syrian border, the city police chief said. Six Marines and scores of insurgents were killed in the 14-hour battle, an embedded journalist from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. A U.S. military spokesman could not confirm the report.
Sections of the two highways, north and south of the capital, were closed off to repair damage from a mounting number of roadside bombs. Commanders suggested the routes remained vulnerable to attacks by insurgents who have been targeting U.S. military supply lines.
"We've got to fix those roads, we've also got to protect those roads," Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad.
The military warned that civilians found on the closed sections "may be considered to be anti-coalition forces" and come under U.S. fire. Kimmitt said civilians would be redirected around the closed sections.
"There are many ways to get into Baghdad and many ways for getting out of Baghdad," he said.
Attacks by gunmen at the western, northern and southern entrances to the city have targeted key military supply lines, forcing the repeated closure of the main Baghdad-Amman road through the violent western district of Abu Ghraib.
Meanwhile, two Japanese hostages -- an aid worker and a freelance journalist -- were released Saturday to the same group of Islamic clerics who negotiated the freedom of three Japanese hostages earlier last week.
This month has seen the worst violence in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein last year. U.S.-led forces are battling Sunni insurgents in Fallujah and a Shiite militia in the south.
Gunfire was nearly halted in Fallujah on Friday night, and the quiet continued through Saturday. A nominal truce since April 11 had been repeatedly shaken by nighttime battles as both insurgents and Marines dug in.
Will talks resume?
Talks toward ending the standoff were to resume Monday, but the top U.S. military negotiator suggested their continuation depended on continued quiet.
"I can't stress enough how key it is for the cease-fire to hold over the next 24 to 48 hours," said Maj. Gen. Joseph Weber, the top U.S. military negotiator.
The military announced Saturday that a U.S. soldier was killed two days earlier when his patrol hit an anti-tank mine near Tikrit, north of Baghdad. His death brought to 89 the number of U.S. troops killed in violence since April 1.
More than 1,000 Iraqis have been killed. At least 686 U.S. service-members have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. That figure does not include the six Marines reported killed near the Syrian border.
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