14 killed by air strike aimed at Iraq's foreign militants
A United States air strike targeting a purported fighting position used by foreign militants in Fallujah demolished a house and killed 14 people, hospital and local officials said today.
Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi gave the go-ahead for the attack, according to his office and the US military. It was the sixth strike on the city since June 19.
In previous strikes, the United States said it was targeting safehouses used by the network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant blamed for masterminding car bombings and other attacks in Iraq.
Today’s attack targeted foreign militants’ “fighting positions and trench lines near the remains of a house,” according to a statement by US Brigadier General Erv Lessel. About 25 fighters were there just before the attack, he said, citing Iraqi and coalition intelligence sources.
Local residents said the attack destroyed a house filled with civilians.
Allawi has promised strong cooperation with the Americans in rooting out terrorism and said after a July 5 air strike in Fallujah that his government had provided the intelligence for the strike. Allawi consulted with US forces on Saturday about today’s strike, his office said.
“The multinational force asked Prime Minister Allawi for permission to launch strikes on some specific places where some terrorists were hiding,” an official in Allawi’s office said today. “Allawi gave his permission,”
Explosions from the attack at about 2am rocked the city. Scores of people ran to the scene and dug through the wreckage looking for survivors.
One witness, who declined to give his name, said the house belonged to a “very poor family”. Angry crowds gathered around the house, chanting ”God is great.”
Lt Saad Khalaf, of the Fallujah Brigade, a defence force that guards the city, said: “We heard the sound of jetfighters and then we heard four explosions in the house occupied by civilian residents,”
Body parts were scattered around the scene. Some were stacked and covered by a gray blanket.
The attack killed 14 people and injured three, according to a a Health Ministry official.
US Marines besieged Fallujah, a hotbed of resistance against US forces, for several weeks last spring and then handed over security to a new “Fallujah Brigade” made up of local residents and commanded by officers from Saddam’s former army.
Many of those who fought the Marines joined the brigade.
Over the past 15 months, militants have used car bombs, sabotage, kidnappings and other attacks to try to destabilise the country.
