Posted on 06/19/2004 8:34:25 AM PDT by kattracks
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — A U.S. military plane fired missiles Saturday into a residential neighborhood in Fallujah, killing at least 16 people and leveling houses there, police and residents said. A U.S. official said the target was a known hideout of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network.It was the first significant U.S. military action in the city since Marines ended a bloody three-week siege against insurgents. Since the U.S. forces left, residents have said that extremist influence in the Sunni Muslim city, west of Baghdad, has only grown.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy operations chief, said the attack struck a known hideout of al-Zarqawi and that the blast caused "multiple secondary explosions" of ammunition and roadside bomb materials stored there. There was no way to confirm the U.S. claim.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several members of the al-Zarqawi network were believed in the house at the time of the attack but they did not know if the terrorist mastermind himself was inside. The officials did not dispute Iraqi casualty figures.
Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born militant believed to have ties to al-Qaida, has been blamed for the string of car bombs across Iraq, including the Thursday that killed 35 people and wounded 145 at an Iraqi military recruiting center in Baghdad.
President George W. Bush has cited al-Zarqawi's presence in Iraq before the April 2003 collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime as evidence of contacts between al-Qaida and the former Iraqi regime.
Elsewhere, U.S. troops battled insurgents for a fourth day near the city of Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, in fighting that has killed at least six Iraqis and one American soldier, the U.S. military and witnesses said. In southern Iraq, a roadside bomb killed at least two people, including a Portuguese security officer.
In the Fallujah strike, at least two houses were destroyed and six others were damaged in the poor neighborhood.
The Iraqi Health Ministry said 16 people were killed, though they expected the number to rise. Residents said 20 bodies — including at least three women and five children — were taken for immediate burial, in accordance with Islamic custom, while hospitals reported at least two more dead.
"At 9:30 a.m., a U.S. plane shot two missiles on this residential area," said the Fallujah police chief, Sabbar al-Janabi, as he surveyed the wreckage. "Scores were killed and injured. This picture speaks for itself."
In Fallujah, rescue workers combed the scene, searching the rubble for other victims. Slabs of concrete and steel reinforcing bars were upended and twisted, Associated Press Television News footage showed.
Water pooled from a 20-foot crater in front of one of the destroyed houses, apparently from where one of the missiles struck. One man displayed several Qurans burned in the strikes.
Outraged residents accused the Americans of trying to inflict maximum damaged by firing two strikes — one first to attack and another to kill the rescuers.
"The number of casualties is so high because after the first missile we jumped to rescue the victims," said Wissam Ali Hamad. "The second missile killed those trying to carry out the rescue."
U.S. Marines besieged Fallujah in April after four American security contractors were killed in an ambush in the city and their bodies mutilated.
Ten Marines and hundreds of Iraqis, many of them civilians, died before the siege was lifted and security was handed over to an Iraqi volunteer force, the Fallujah Brigade.
The clashes northeast of the capital began Wednesday in Buhriz when insurgents fired on U.S. troops after they met with the mayor to discuss reconstruction projects, 1st Infantry Division spokesman Maj. Neal O'Brien said.
Buhriz is located on the outskirts of Baqouba, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad,
Clashes have continued intermittently in the Baqouba area ever since. One American soldier died of wounds suffered Friday in Buhriz, O'Brien said.
The clashes spread Saturday to nearby Tahrir, where insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at a U.S. patrol, wounding two U.S. soldiers, O'Brien said. The soldiers were evacuated to the 31st Combat Support Hospital.
Dr. Nassir Jawad of the Baqouba General Hospital said at least six Iraqis were killed and 54 were wounded in the Buhriz fighting. Municipal officials had said 13 Iraqis died. U.S. officials put the Iraqi death toll at 10 in the Thursday fighting and five on Friday.
In southern Iraq, a roadside bomb killed at least two people, including a Portuguese security official working for the state-run Oil Products Co. and an Iraqi policeman guarding him, police Capt. Diaa Hussein said. The Portugese Foreign Ministry confirmed the death of the Portuguese citizen, Antonio Jose Monteiro Abelha, 36.
The two were driving on a road from the southern city of Basra to nearby Zubayr when the blast destroyed their vehicle. One civilian driving behind them was also injured, Hussein said.
It was the second attack in four days against people involved in protecting Iraq's oil industry. On Wednesday, gunmen killed the security chief of the state-run Northern Oil Company, Ghazi Talabani, in Kirkuk.
Insurgents have also targeted Iraq's strategic pipeline system, cutting off all exports from the southern oilfields in bombings this week. Iraq hopes to resume partial exports this weekend.
Exports from Iraq's other field near Kirkuk were halted last month due to sabotage on the pipeline to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, Turkey.
Iraq had been exporting about 1.5 million barrels of crude oil a day through two southern pipelines, both of which were damaged. A coalition spokesman said Friday the smaller pipeline had nearly been repaired but full exports would probably not resume before Wednesday.
The pipeline attacks are part of a stepped up campaign of violence in the run-up to the June 30 transfer of sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government.
Meanwhile, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement it would be unlawful for the United States to hold detainees, including Saddam Hussein, after the June 30 power transfer without charging them with crimes.
The U.S. military has said it will continue to hold thousands of prisoners detained since it invaded Iraq last year and that it could do so legally until a "cessation of hostilities."
"The Bush Administration can't have its cake and it too. If the occupation is over, so is the U.S. authority to detain Iraqis without criminal charges," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
I will be distributing baklava to my neighbors over this.
Time of our choosing
bbbbbut I thought we surrendered in Fallujah(sarcasm on)
"The Bush Administration can't have its cake and it too. If the occupation is over, so is the U.S. authority to detain Iraqis without criminal charges," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
I wonder if he talked to Saddam like that, moron.
The new Iraqi govt will expell idiots like this, that is if he ever shows up in their country.
I hope we did this on purpose! That'll teach 'em.
IMHO a declaration of war was passed in Sept 2001.
We have short memories.
On the contrary the continue to repeat the LIE. The front page of the LA Slimes is prima facia evidence they have no intent of stopping the jihad against the Commander in Chief.
Now we need to start firing a third missle in strikes... to nail the press vultures.
Ah, but one can dream.
From Col. Tavington in "The Patriot" - "Let it be known that if you harbour the enemy - you will lose your home". And even though Mel Gibson gave Tavinton a Gibson style death at the end, Tavinton was still able to decimate Gibson's militia.
Might I also suggest tortillas&salsa and a hearty round of ululation.
"what happened to the effort to apprehend those responsible for killing the four contractors and mutilating their bodies? Is the Fallujah brigade now responsible for carrying out our pledge?"
Indeed it is. And you know why according to the press?
Because of the "'mujahedeen', fighters who battled Marines to a standstill in April."
Any body know which Fallujah they're talking about? The Fallujah where the Marines kicked butt everytime they met? Where the powers that be held our guys back to minimize collateral damage? Where no one doubted the outcome if we went in after them? That "battle to a standstill"?
Folks, this isn't just oversight or spin on the press' part. They have to work hard to twist things this out of shape.
War is hell, ain't it.
LOL! That was the first thing I thought!
Hmmmm....
[The Iraqi Health Ministry said 16 people were killed, though they expected the number to rise. Residents said 20 bodies — including at least three women and five children — were taken for immediate burial, in accordance with Islamic custom, while hospitals reported at least two more dead.]
No disclaimer. Hmmmmm.....
So to AP, if a US Military commander makes a statement, it has to be disclaimed if not confirmed by another. But any statement from the chronic-liar Arabs is taken as gospel. The modern "old media" is despicable.
What I'm looking for is action to STOP these American deaths instead of waiting for something to avenge, and this won't come close.
The early reports on this strike were full of quotes from the Iraqis in charge of Fallujah, the "good guys" that we turned it over to. "The U.S. targeted women and children this morning" was the nut of their report. Great allies. You think they don't know where the bad guys are? Of course they do, yet they don't give them up. They protect them. Our piecemeal approach of killing only the worst of the bad guys is and will continue to be a failure. Americans will continue to die until our leaders decide to fight the war on terror with utter and unmitigated victory as the only goal.
MM
Jackass alert.
Probably by nightfall...
So we hit another stinking baby milk factory! (Haven't the Iraqis ever heard of dairy farms?)
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