- US air forces fired two missiles into a residential area
of the troubled Iraqi city of Fallujah yesterday, killing 22 people and
sparking a bitter row just 10 days before the country is supposed to come
under Iraqi control.
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- Angry local people said at least five children and three
women were among the dead, and that the Americans had sought to maximise
casualties by firing a second missile at people trying to rescue victims.
According to a US military spokesman in Baghdad, the target was a known
hideout of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an al-Qa'ida-linked militant who is the
Americans' most wanted man in Iraq.
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- The dispute highlighted the problems likely to be thrown
up by what the occupation authorities call the transfer of power to a sovereign
Iraqi government on 30 June. The interim government expects to be consulted
on major military operations, but it is uncertain whether US officers would
clear air strikes with Iraqi ministers. If they gave the go-ahead and there
were serious civilian casualties, then many Iraqis would see their government
as a US puppet.
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- In Saudi Arabia, where another militant group connected
to al-Qa'ida beheaded a kidnapped American engineer on Friday, national
television showed what was reported to be the bodies of four of his captors.
The authorities said the men were killed in a shoot-out after a witness
reported the licence plate of a car used to move the body of Paul Johnson,
their American hostage.
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- According to the Saudi government, Abdulaziz al-Muqrin,
leader of the group calling itself al-Qa'ida of the Arabian Peninsula,
and his two main lieutenants were killed, although an Islamist website
denied this.
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- It was later reported that one of the cars confiscated
from the group was connected with the attack on a BBC crew earlier this
month. Cameraman Simon Cumbers was killed, while security correspondent
Frank Gardner was seriously injured.
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- In the struggle for Arab opinion, the Fallujah air strike
could be a severe setback for the US. The missiles tore apart two houses
which were reduced to a heap of broken concrete. "An American plane
hit this house and three others were damaged," a witness said. "Only
body parts are left."
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- One man sat nearby crying. Asked how many members of
his family had been killed, he said: "I don't know, maybe 10."
Sabbar al-Janabi, the chief of police in Fallujah, said: "Scores were
killed and injured. This picture speaks for itself."
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- The strongest resistance to the occupation has come from
Fallujah, besieged by US Marines in April after four American civilian
security men were killed in the main street. But the siege turned out to
be a disastrous miscalculation.
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=533378
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