Posted on 06/19/2004 7:24:59 PM PDT by wagglebee
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces killed 22 people in an air strike on what they said was a safe house linked to al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the Iraqi city of Falluja Saturday.
U.S. military officers said there was no sign Zarqawi himself -- who has a $10 million price on his head -- was in the house when it was destroyed. Furious Iraqis said the dead included women and children.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said in Baghdad the house was being used by fighters loyal to Zarqawi, accused by Washington of leading a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and of decapitating a U.S. hostage last month.
"We have significant evidence that there were members of the Zarqawi network in the house," Kimmitt said.
"Today coalition forces conducted a strike on a known Zarqawi safe house in southwest Falluja based on multiple confirmations of actionable intelligence."
Zarqawi is portrayed by the Americans as a key figure in al Qaeda attacks destabilizing the country at a critical time before a U.S.-led coalition formally hand sovereignty to an Iraqi interim government on June 30.
Pro-American authorities in neighboring Saudi Arabia said they had killed al Qaeda's leader in the kingdom, Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, and three other prominent militants.
The Saudi operation came hours after the group carried out its threat to behead U.S. hostage Paul Johnson Friday.
Residents of Falluja said two missiles had been fired at the house by a U.S. plane Saturday morning, flattening the building. Kimmitt said the U.S. strike had caused secondary blasts as ammunition inside the house exploded.
"An American plane hit this house and three others were damaged. Only body parts are left," a witness said, as rescuers dug through the rubble of the shattered house for survivors.
"They brought us 22 corpses, children, women and youth," Ahmed Hassan, a cemetery worker, said after the blast.
Last month, Marines killed around 40 Iraqis in an attack on a house in the western desert near the Syrian border. The U.S. military said the house was a staging point for foreign fighters but survivors said a wedding party had been massacred.
Washington says Jordanian-born Zarqawi has been the mastermind behind a series of bloody suicide attacks in Iraq that have sown chaos and claimed hundreds of lives. It says he was also the man shown beheading U.S. hostage Nicholas Berg in a grisly video posted on the Internet last month.
Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for the assassination of Iraq's Governing Council leader, Izzedin Salim, on May 17. The most recent attack claimed by the group was last Monday's suicide car bombing in Baghdad that killed 13 people.
U.S. commanders say pacifying restive Falluja is crucial for stability ahead of the formal handover of sovereignty.
Hundreds of Iraqis were killed in the city in April in fighting between U.S. Marines and guerrillas, sparking outrage in Iraq. The U.S. military agreed a truce and handed responsibility for security to an Iraqi force that includes many former officers in Saddam Hussein's armed forces.
Guerrillas bent on disrupting this month's handover of sovereignty brought Iraq's crucial oil exports to a halt this week with attacks on two key southern pipelines.
Saturday, a roadside bomb targeted foreign workers on a road southwest of Basra. Police said a Portuguese civilian and an Iraqi policeman were killed, an Indian and an Iraqi wounded.
Iraq has been unable to export any oil since the attacks.
An oil official said welders working in searing heat on the Faw peninsula south of Basra had run into delays but might complete repairs to one of the pipelines later Saturday.
The U.S. military reported the deaths of two more American soldiers, bringing to 614 the total killed in action since last year's invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein.
In Beirut, a Foreign Ministry source said kidnappers in Iraq freed the last Lebanese hostage who was seized last weekend. The source said George Frando was in good health.
I'm just waiting for the news report stating that this was not a safe house but a wedding or a bake sale or something. Puhhhleasse...
Oh yeah, all that fat; incendiary stuff!
LOL........See it's easy !
Stay safe !
Considering how the last "wedding party" report turned out, it's safe to say that furious Iraqis, possibly terrorist supporters, might not be the most reliable sources of who was in the building.
When terrorists learn that hiding behind women and children doesn't keep us from converting them into body parts, they'll stop using them as shields.
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Nope but maybe women and children will resist acting ahs cover for terrorist and turn them into the US. Clearly we hit the right place as other have said, the secondary explosions show that.
The lesson here is do not let foreign terrorist hide in your neighborhood. It is bad for your health.
Can't be. These people were just storing fireworks for the Fourth of July.
Terrorists using women and children as human shields.
I bet these terrorists would have preferred women's panties on their heads instead of being blown to kingdom come...
OK, Missiles: The only air-to-ground missiles I know fire from a jet are the Maverick (anti-tank), HARM (Anti-Radar), or the ZUNI or Hydra (or variants: 2.5 to 5 inch unguided rockets). Of these, the Maverick is the most logical choice since it is guided, has a shaped-charge warhead (little collateral damage), and has great penetration.
If they hit a building with no explosive material inside, there would be an explosion outside the wall, a penetration into the building, and an exit hole on the other side. There would be casualties inside the room the missiles went through, but the buildings should still stand after wards. Obviously, the buildings were full of ammunition (high caliber like RPGs and Mortars, not just little rifle rounds) and high end explosives (SIMTEX or other plastiques). The terrorist sympathizers and cowering victims who wouldn't stand up to them just should be glad these particular "safe-houses" didn't have chemical or biological agents stored in them like Sarin or VX nerve gas (both of which would have survived the explosion and spread through the area).
Bottom line: legitimate terrorist hold-out and good targeting by our intell assets.
And this is a surprise?
" linked to al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ."
No,No,No.
On NBC Nightly News Friday night, Campbell Brown subbing for Bush Bashing Brokaw, declared that al Zarqawi has absolutely No Ties To Al Queda.
None, Zip, Zero, Nada.
So when his DNA or turban is positively identified, the misleadia and the Democrats will declare that his capture or vaporization means nothing in the WOT.
So, everyone be prepared for that new spin.
Guess for these pukes, it wasn't a very 'SAFE' house after all! :)
It was a holy house.
After the missle strike it became a VERY holey house.
to it looks like...
I could see the plane coming around for a second pass and a second missile, but I can also make a good case for one missile and a delayed secondary.
No way for me to tell which it was, but I'm sure not taking the word of any eyewitnesses.
It'll be interesting to see how much sack Zarqawi is carrying after this. Moammer Qaddafi packed it in after we got his daughter and almost got him. If Zarqawi's serious about eclipsing Bin Laden for control of radical Islam, he'll have to hit back and succeed within 24 to 48 hours.
If I was a "witness" to the "attack", I'd be just like the (MOSTLY) men in the pictures digging thru the rubble for
"body parts".....I'd bring a back hoe with me if I could...
With a 10 MILLION dollar bounty on ol'Al ZZZ.....shoot, ya might find a toe or finger or somethin' of his!!!
....but I'd probably have to "split" the reward with the other "prize winners"....I HATE it when THAT happens...
As I understand it, wealthy Saudis own a significant part of Reuters (and that's ironic since Reuters himself was a Jew).
Arabs believe lying is okey-dokey when dealing with the enemy.
Are the 'furious Iraqis' mentioned the same vermin who dragged dead Americans through the streets before hanging them from a bridge? If not, and they lost innocent family members, I'm sorry for their loss. But if Al Qaeda operatives were in those houses, then the strikes were necessary. It's either take out a safe house here and there or flatten the whole region. Which would they prefer? We're doing what we can to lessen civilian casualties, but they will keep using women and children as shields. The American public is fed up with the 'Arab street', our level of tolerance is zero. In fact, Bush would probably win Brownie points if he ordered a few MOABs dropped, esp. on Mecca.
We saw the effects of peace brought about by the destruction of two cities during the last part of WWII. We saw the same President waffle in Korea and are still paying the price of that piss poor decision.
War sucks, should be avoided at all costs and is always the "last resort". But should you go to war.....GO TO WAR ....and do it well or never attempt it in the first place.
Just my opinion....Stay safe !
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