BAGHDAD, Sep. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- The US warplanes pounded a train station used as hideout by insurgents in an Iraqi town near the Syrian border on Thursday, the US military said.

    "At approximately 1:00 p.m. Sept. 1, Coalition Forces conducted an air strike against an identified terrorist safe haven in the western border town of Husaybah," the military said in a statement.

    The US F-18 jet fighters destroyed the target with precision-guided 500-pound bombs, the statement said.

    Over the past two days, intelligence sources have observed approximately 50 al-Qaida terrorists "staging weapons at a train station to be used in continued attacks against local Iraqis and coalition forces," according to the statement.

    The number of terrorists killed in the air strikes is undetermined at this time, the statement added.

    The military said that its aircraft carried out strikes on Aug. 26 and Aug. 30 in Husaybah after Iraqi citizens reported that a large group of al Qaida terrorists were using an abandoned hotel and a house to plan and launch attacks on Iraqi and US forces.

    The US air strike early on Tuesday (Aug. 30) near the Iraqi western border town of Qaim killed 56 civilians, said an Interior Ministry source.

    A US military spokesman said that its aircraft shelled suspectedal-Qaida hideouts near Qaim, killing several militants. Enditem