- FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) --
The U.S. military said an airstrike in the Iraqi city of Falluja which
killed about 20 people on Saturday had targeted a safehouse for fighters
led by Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, a militant accused of links to al Qaeda.
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- Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said he did not dispute
Iraqi accounts that around 20 people were killed in the strike.
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- He said there was "significant intelligence"
members of Zarqawi's Muslim militant network were in the house, but there
was no evidence that he himself was there.
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- The U.S. military has said Jordanian-born Zarqawi has
played a major role in bombing attacks in Iraq and maintained a network
in Falluja, the country's most rebellious town.
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- The airstrike on Falluja left victims crushed under rubble
after two missile strikes demolished the house, witnesses said.
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- Relatives brought 22 bodies for burial to a cemetery
after the blast.
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- "An American plane hit this house and three others
were damaged. Only body parts are left," one witness told Reuters.
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- Falluja residents say U.S. troops have deployed hardline
tactics in the town that have killed scores of civilians and created new
enemies.
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- Iraqis dug through the rubble of the flattened house,
looking for survivors of Saturday's strike.
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- At Falluja Martyr's Cemetery, town residents set up a
row of 22 graves covered by cement slabs in keeping with the Muslim tradition
of quick burial.
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- "They brought us 22 corpses, children, women and
youth," said cemetery worker Ahmed Hassan.
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- U.S. Marine commanders have said pacifying Falluja, one
of Iraq's most rebellious cities, is crucial for stabilizing Iraq as the
U.S. occupation formally ends on June 30 and sovereignty is handed over
to a new Iraqi interim government.
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- In April, hundreds of Iraqis were killed in fierce fighting
between U.S. Marines and guerrillas in Falluja, 32 miles west of Baghdad.
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- A truce was later agreed, under which an Iraqi force
was put in charge of security in the city.
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- After Saturday's attack, a man sat on the floor weeping
as someone asked him how many members of his family were killed.
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- "I don't know. Maybe 10," he said.
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- http://news.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5462617
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