Posted on 06/23/2004 12:42:47 PM PDT by Destro
U.S. Kills 20 Foreign Fighters in Iraq, Official Says
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: June 23, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 23 — Up to 20 foreign fighters were killed overnight during an American military strike on a house in the city of Falluja, a senior military official said today.
The assault came after Muslim insurgents beheaded a South Korean hostage and threatened to assassinate the Iraqi prime minister.
"Falluja has become a place where large numbers of foreign fighters remain," a senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters in Baghdad. "We are concerned about this. We don't know if it has become a clearinghouse for terrorists, but we are watching it closely."
Earlier, the military said in a statement that it had carried out an attack on a safehouse belonging to a "known Zarqawi network."
The killers of the South Korean, Kim Sun Il, an interpreter, were believed to be members of a group called Jamaat al-Tawhid and Jihad, which is linked to the Jordanian terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Today, militants threatened to assassinate the prime minister, Iyad Allawi. "As for you, Allawi — sorry, the democratically elected prime minister — we have found for you a useful poison and a sure sword," a taped voice, represented as that of Mr. Zarqawi, said on an Islamist Web site, according to Reuters.
American officials said they were taking the threat against the prime minister seriously and that protecting his life was now one of the chief concerns leading up to the June 30 handover of sovereignty.
"We are making security for the prime minister a top priority," a senior occupation official said today.
President Bush called Mr. Allawi to "reiterate his commitment to the Iraqi people," the chief White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Philadelphia, according to The Associated Press. Mr. McClellan added that the call was not arranged in response to the assassination threat and that the president had planned to call Mr. Allawi beforehand.
Mr. Kim had dreamed of becoming a Christian missionary in the Arab world. He was abducted five days ago near Falluja.
The execution was carried out after the South Korean government rejected the captors' demand that it halt the scheduled deployment of an additional 3,000 troops to Iraq in August. A videotape broadcast on Al Jazeera television showed Mr. Kim sitting or kneeling quietly in an orange jumpsuit and blindfolded with an orange cloth. Five masked men, three cradling guns and one with a sheathed knife, stand behind him.
"Your army has not come here for the sake of Iraqis but for cursed America," one of the men says.
Al Jazeera, which did not show the killing, reported that the men then beheaded Mr. Kim. The Central Intelligence Agency has said Mr. Zarqawi was the man seen beheading Nicholas Berg, an American who had been kidnapped, on a tape circulated on the Internet.
In a televised address today, the president of South Korea, Roh Moo Hyun, called Mr. Kim's slaying a crime against humanity. He condemned terrorism, vowing "to deal sternly with it together with the international community," according to The A.P..
"When we think of his desperate appeals for life, our hearts are wrenched with grief," Mr. Roh said.
President Bush said Mr. Kim's beheading was another futile effort to drive the United States and its allies out of the country. "They want us to cower in the face of their brutal killings," he said, "and the United States will not be intimidated by these people."
This was the third beheading in the Middle East in the last several weeks. Last Friday, Saudi members of a cell suspected of being linked to Al Qaeda decapitated Paul M. Johnson Jr., an abducted American engineer. Mr. Berg was killed last month.
American soldiers found the body of Mr. Kim, 33, between Baghdad and Falluja, the volatile Sunni city 35 miles west of the capital. "It appears that the body had been thrown from a vehicle," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a spokesman for the occupation forces, said Tuesday in a statement to The Associated Press. "The man had been beheaded, and the head was recovered with the body."
Today, the American military said three Iraqi civilians, one of them a child, were killed when an "improvised explosive device" exploded in central Baghdad. The Iraqi police said the device was a roadside bomb, Reuters reported.
In all the recent beheadings, the victims were wearing orange shirts similar to prison jumpsuits. Some analysts have speculated that the jumpsuits are meant to evoke the humiliations of Muslim men at the Abu Ghraib prison and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Mr. Kim was kidnapped Thursday as he was returning to Baghdad in a civilian convoy that had left an American military base 120 miles west of the capital.
He had been working for a South Korean company that supplied goods to the American military, and held degrees in Arabic, English and theology. He was working in Iraq to earn enough money to carry on his studies, his sister said.
Militants released a videotape on Sunday in which they demanded that the South Korean government abandon its deployment plans within 24 hours or receive the head of Mr. Kim.
Falluja remains the single most problematic place for the occupation forces in Iraq. In early May, marines withdrew from the city and turned it over to a 2,000-strong militia composed partly of insurgents, and Falluja now remains firmly in the hands of hard-line Sunni clerics and guerrilla fighters.
Last Saturday, an American jet fired missiles at what General Kimmitt said was another suspected Zarqawi safe house in Falluja. At least 26 people were killed.
It was unclear whether Mr. Kim was killed by the same people who had kidnapped him. Insurgents have announced rewards for the abduction of foreigners from countries that have sent soldiers to Iraq.
Scores of foreigners have been kidnapped since the bloody uprising in April, and many are still being held.
Kim Chun Ho, the head of the Gana Trading Company, which employed Mr. Kim, has told the Yonhap news agency that several other foreign contractors were traveling in the same convoy with Mr. Kim and were also kidnapped.
He said those contractors were working for Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton and the largest private supplier to the American forces. The company said Tuesday that it could not confirm the kidnappings.
South Korea has 660 noncombat troops in Iraq. The addition of the 3,000 in August would make the country's deployment here the third largest, behind the United States and Britain.
Polls in South Korea show that a majority of people there oppose their government's participation in the war. The government released a statement on Tuesday emphasizing that the troop deployment is "for reconstruction and humanitarian aid support."
Insurgents have pursued a strategy of punishing countries that join in the occupation. In April, fighters killed one of four Italian hostages but released the others. A Japanese photographer and two nonprofit workers were kidnapped in April and eventually released. In both cases, the countries refused to negotiate with the captors.
Many of the hostages who have been released have won their freedom through the mediation of Sunni clerics. Earlier on Tuesday, wire services reported that an Iraqi mediator said he had seen Mr. Kim alive and that the captors had agreed to extend talks.
Edward Wong reported from Baghdad for this article, and James Glanz from Basra.
Mr. Bush - elections be damned - be a leader - do the right thing and go to war!
Ernest at the Beach outscooped ya.
Tha should read U.S. ---
It went from 4 to 20 killed?
They must've just now found the rest of the chunks.
I'll be waiting for the, "IT WAS A WEDDING!!!!" cries from the libs.
"...Mr. Bush - elections be damned - be a leader - do the right thing and go to war! .."
Agree! Military life is more valuable than those scum terrorists.
On July 1, the newly sovereign government of Iraq should formally request the assistance of the US in "pacifying" Fallujah - i.e., killing every "foreign fighter" in it, among other measures.
Otherwise, what the hell good is their sovereignty?
That is a capital offense in a Muslim country. It's right there in the Koran. Even moderate Muslims would agree that he needed to die. There prophet was the last, doncha know? It's like when Democrats institute a liberal policy; there's no going back.
Many of the hostages who have been released have won their freedom through the mediation of Sunni clerics. Earlier on Tuesday, wire services reported that an Iraqi mediator said he had seen Mr. Kim alive and that the captors had agreed to extend talks.
The police chief is still reporting only 4.
Advice from those knowing little is worthless. Thanks anyway.
After an attack like that......they simply weigh the sponges.
Semper Fi
I know Falluja is still a safe haven for terrorists - what do you know?
>>We knew Falluja would become a terrorist safe haven once we called off the marines. The cease fire was a huge mistake - the marines were all set to wipe that place off the jihad map and should do so again. <<
Actually, using it as a terrorist bottleneck where we can do the occasional air strike to take out twenty or so at a time sounds pretty sneeky.
The Headline we'd like to see:
BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 23 — Only 20 survivors, mostly women and children, fled overnight during another American military strike on the flattened city of Falluja senior military official said today. Bodies of foreign fighters are not being recovered and there are no estimates of the number of dead.
My mom asked me what I think we should do about the people doing the beheadings. I replied that we should kill them all, cut off their heads and stack them in the middle of Baghdad as a warning. She agreed. Enough with the restraint!
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