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WASHINGTON American troops in Iraq are battling insurgents to keep open vital military supply lines in and out of Baghdad. The attacks on the supply lines are posing new hazards to civilian contractors who operate many of the convoys and siphoning shorthanded combat forces away from the main fight against militants, according to senior commanders. Securing the major roadways has become a high priority, top officers said on Monday. Over the weekend, U.S. forces fought pitched battles to clear the main north-south and east-west routes to and from Baghdad, and also near Falluja, for trucks to haul food, fuel, water and ammunition to soldiers and marines, they said. Many convoys have been delayed; others suspended, officials said.
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The attacks on convoys, along with sabotage to roads and bridges, have opened yet another front in the week-old surge in violence in Iraq.
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Two U.S. soldiers and seven employees of the American contractor Kellogg Brown Root were missing and feared abducted after an attack on Friday on a fuel convoy near Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad.