FALLUJAH, Iraq - A U.S. airstrike late Wednesday targeted a suspected safehouse in Fallujah used by followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, U.S. officials said. The attack killed 17 people, including three children, and wounded six, hospital officials and witnesses said. advertisement
 |
Witnesses said the strike hit a residence in the southern neighborhood of al-Jubail. People struggled to pull bodies from the rubble, while ambulances and civilian cars took the dead and wounded to the hospital. U.S. forces have repeatedly carried out airstrikes in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, since Marines pulled back after a three-week siege of the city in April aimed at rooting out Sunni Muslim insurgents. The U.S. military said in a statement that the latest strike used a precision-guided weapon to hit a safehouse used by al-Zarqawi’s militants. The strike, based on multiple Iraqi and coalition intelligence sources, targeted two buildings used as safehouses and meeting points for al-Zarqawi associates who had executed someone earlier Wednesday, the military said. “The Zarqawi associates were observed removing a man from the trunk of a car, executing him then burying his body,” the statement said. Dr. Ahmed Hamid, at Fallujah General Hospital, said six adult civilians and three children had been brought in dead. An Associated Press reporter at the scene later saw eight more bodies removed from the wreckage. Al-Zarqawi’s followers have claimed responsibility for numerous deadly attacks across Iraq, including the beheadings of American businessman Nicholas Berg and South Korean translator Kim Sun-il. Chalabi convoy targeted
Earlier Wednesday, gunmen opened fire on a convoy carrying former Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi in an apparent assassination attempt that wounded two of his bodyguards, Chalabi’s spokesman said. Chalabi’s convoy was attacked in southern Baghdad at about 7:30 a.m. as he returned from the holy city of Najaf, said spokesman Mithal al-Alusi. “The doctor (Chalabi) is in good health. He is safe, but two of his bodyguards were injured,” al-Alusi said. Chalabi, a one-time Pentagon favorite who fell out of favor with the United States, returned to Iraq from Iran earlier this month to face counterfeiting charges. A warrant issued by an Iraqi court accused him of counterfeiting old Iraqi dinars, which were removed from circulation after the ouster of Saddam Hussein last year. Chalabi denies the allegations, saying he collected the fake currency in his role as chairman of the Governing Council’s finance committee. Despite the warrant, the Iraqi Interior Ministry has said it won’t arrest Chalabi until unspecified legal issues are cleared up, leaving him free to move around the country. Chalabi’s nephew Salem Chalabi — who heads the special tribunal in charge of trying ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein — faces separate murder charges. American soldier killed
Earlier, the U.S. military said in a statement that a roadside bomb in northern Iraq killed one American soldier and wounded two others. The statement said the incident took place on Sunday near the city of Mosul. At least 729 American soldiers have been killed in action in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion last year to oust Saddam Hussein. The total U.S. military death toll in Iraq, which includes friendly fire incidents and accidents, is 974. On Monday, rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for his followers across Iraq to end fighting against U.S. and Iraqi forces and is planning to join the political process in the coming days, an al-Sadr aide said. The announcement by al-Sadr came as his aides were trying to negotiate an end to fighting in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City and in the southern city of Basra, where clashes have continued even after a peace deal was reached in Najaf, the holy city where al-Sadr militiamen battled U.S. and Iraqi forces for three weeks. Al-Sadr also called for U.S. and Iraqi forces to withdraw from the center of Iraqi cities, Sheik Ali Smeisim told The Associated Press. However, that did not appear to be a condition for the unilateral cease-fire. ‘Stop firing’
“I call on the interim Iraqi government to have patience ... and to pull back the American and Iraqi forces from the center of Iraqi cities,” Smeisim said, speaking on behalf of al-Sadr. “At the same time I call on the forces of the Mahdi Army (militia) to ... stop firing until the announcement of the political program adopted by the Sadrist movement.” When asked if the cease-fire would take effect immediately, he said: “I hope so.” The announcement could provide a major boost to the government of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Al-Sadr has fiercely opposed the continued U.S. presence in Iraq and has denounced Allawi’s government as dependent on the Americans — but if he decides to join politics, it would suggest al-Sadr’s acceptance of the U.S.-backed political process due to lead to elections in January. Allawi demands al-Sadr disband militia
Allawi has also demanded al-Sadr disband his Mahdi Army militia, but the aides did not say the cleric was considering doing so. The militia has emerged intact from the weeks of fighting with U.S. forces, and al-Sadr has gained popularity among some sectors of Shiites, particularly the poor. “This latest initiative shows that we want stability and security in this country by ending all confrontation in all parts of Iraq,” said Sheik Raed al-Khadami, al-Sadr’s spokesman in Baghdad. “Al-Sadr’s office in Najaf will call within the next two days to join the political process.” Al-Sadr visited the Imam Ali Shrine in the city of Najaf for the first time since his militia left the holy site of Friday after weeks of using it as a stronghold and refuge during the fighting with the Americans. Al-Sadr asked religious authorities for permission to enter the shrine and made a brief visit on Monday, according to the office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric. Uprisings by al-Sadr’s fighters this month and in April increased the security problems faced by Allawi’s government, on top of the Sunni Muslim-led insurgency that has plagued Iraq since the fall of Saddam more than a year ago. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
|  | U.S. wounded in Iraq approaching 7,000 |
| | |
|
| | | |
| | /peacock_999999.gif) | EDITOR'S CHOICE |
| | | | |
|
| 
