The Marines said in a statement that the member of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force died of wounds he got during "security and stability operations" in the Al-Anbar province on Friday.

It was not immediately clear where in the turbulent province the dead Marine had been fighting when he was wounded.

Marines and Iraqi insurgents fought daylong clashes Wednesday in the Al-Anbar town of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad.

The name of the deceased Marine was withheld pending next-of-kin notification.

The death raised the U.S. toll in Iraq since the beginning of the war to 903, according to an Associated Press count.

Iraq has been wracked by a 15-month-long insurgency that has used car bombings, sabotage, kidnappings and other violence to try to drive out coalition forces and hamper reconstruction efforts.

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