TALL AFAR, Iraq, Sept 4 (AFP) - US forces launched a major offensive in northern Iraq Saturday against suspected militant infiltrators from Syria as there was still no news of two captive French journalists.
Insurgents meanwhile disrupted a session of Iraq`s interim parliament in Baghdad with mortar fire as fighting also broke out in the rebel strongholds of Ramadi and Fallujah west of the capital.
Eight Iraqis were killed and as many as 40 wounded in the morning operation in the town of Tall Afar west of the main northern city of Mosul, medics said.
The US Army`s 2nd Infantry Division entered the city at 8 am (0400 GMT) to hunt down a "terrorist cell" and detained one wanted individual, the military said.
"The city of Tall Afar has been a suspected haven for terrorists crossing into Iraq from Syria," it charged.
US tanks rolled into the mainly Shiite Turkmen town and helicopter gunships flew overhead, an AFP correspondent on the scene reported.
Amid heavy fighting, air strikes were called in and a bomb was dropped near the city, the military acknowledged.
Soldiers killed two insurgents after coming under rocket-propelled grenade fire while guarding an OH-58D Kiowa reconaissance helicopter forced to make an emergency landing, it added.
The cause of the crash landing was still under investigation, it said.
Meanwhile, three mortar rounds hit the heavily fortified central Baghdad compound housing the US embassy and Iraqi government as the interim parliament met, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
The loud explosions rattled the convention centre where the assembly was meeting and security guards ordered delegates away from the windows.
Mortar fire also greeted the parliament`s first session on Wednesday. The surrounding compound, known as the Green Zone, is regularly fired on by insurgents.
In the restive mainly Sunni Arab province of Al-Anbar, fighting erupted early Saturday between US troops and insurgents in the Asura district of the provincial capital of Ramadi.
A 35-year-old woman was shot dead in the crossfire, said police Lieutenant Attala Khalaf al-Dulaimi and Doctor Basil al-Najem of the general hospital.
Two civilians were killed and 11 wounded on Thursday during skirmishes between US troops and insurgents in the city, where shootouts are almost daily.
Meanwhile, insurgents pressed ahead with a campaign of intimidation against officials working with the Americans, kidnapping the postal and communications director for Al-Anbar province.
Fawzi Jassem al-Dulaimi was snatched at gunpoint from his car at 8:30 am (0430 GMT) on his way to work by six armed men in two Opal cars, said Police Lieutenant Abdul Satar Dulaimi.
The abduction follows the kidnappings in the last week of Anbar province`s directors for both oil, and water and sewage.
Insurgents also killed overnight the son of the Anbar police`s management and logistic director, a police officer said.
In Fallujah, considered the nexus of the resistance, residents said US forces shelled two homes in the southeastern Shuhada district, wounding eight people.
But the US military had no immediate confirmation.
"We are a family living in this house and we were suprised by shells falling on our house," said Abu Mohammed.
It left five relatives wounded, including a pair of women and children, and destroyed doors and windows in the house, he added.
A total of eight people were wounded in the shelling, said Dr. Wajdi Ahmed at Fallujah General Hospital.
Elsewhere, masked assailants attacked former Baathists in the restive town of Baquba, north of Baghdad, killing one, wounding another and taking hostage a third, police said.
There was no word meanwhile from the captors of two French newsmen despite mounting hopes that they might be released after an ultimatum expired without any announcement.
The girlfriend of one of them -- Le Figaro correspondent Georges Malbrunot -- had cautioned Friday that their release could be several days away.
"They`ve told me it`s not a matter of hours, but could take several days," Sylvie Cherpin told journalists.
She said she was in regular telephone contact with the foreign ministry as the situation unfolded. "Today they told me the same thing as yesterday. They are alive, being well-treated, but not out of danger."
She added ministry officials had urged her to remain cautious and to keep her head in the crisis.