- (Agencies) -- At least 13 people were killed in a Baghdad
suicide car bomb attack this morning just hours after US strikes on
militant
targets in the city of Falluja killed 45 people and injured 27.
-
- Another 50 people were wounded when the bomber struck,
near a major police checkpoint in central Baghdad, the Iraqi health
ministry
and US military officials said.
-
- A government spokesman said the bomb had detonated beside
a line of police vehicles set up to seal off routes to nearby Haifa Street,
where US and Iraqi forces had spent the morning raiding insurgent
hideouts.
-
- The midday attack occurred on a busy market day, and
officials fear that the number of casualties will rise.
-
- Earlier today at least 45 people were killed and 27 were
injured in a wave of US attacks on the alleged hideouts of an
al-Qaida-linked
group in and around the town of Falluja, the Iraqi health ministry
said.
-
- According to a statement by the US military, the strikes,
which began last night, targeted a compound in Fazat Shnetir, about 12
miles south of the Sunni stronghold of Falluja, where militants loyal to
the Jordanian-born al-Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were gathering to
plot attacks on US-led forces in Iraq.
-
- Militants who survived the strikes later sought refuge
in nearby villages, but US forces quickly broke off an offensive to hunt
them down in an effort to avoid civilian casualties, the statement
said.
-
- "The number of foreign fighters killed during the
strike is estimated at approximately 60. The terrorists targeted in this
strike were believed to be associated with recent bombing attacks and other
terrorist activities throughout Iraq," the US military said.
-
- But a health ministry spokesman, Saad al-Amili, said
at least 17 children and two women were among the wounded. Hospital
officials
in Falluja said women and children were also among the dead, but exact
figures were not immediately available.
-
- Residents of Fazat Shnetir were seen digging graves today
and burying the dead in groups of four.
-
- Doctors at Falluja general hospital struggled to cope
with the wave of casualties, many of whom were transported in private cars
as the ambulance service was overwhelmed.
-
- Relatives pounded their chests in grief and denounced
the US while religious leaders switched on loudspeakers at the mosque to
call on residents to donate blood and chanted "God is
great."
-
- US forces have not patrolled inside Falluja since the
end of a three-week siege that left hundreds dead. Insurgents have
strengthened
their grip since then, mounting regular attacks against US positions and
military convoys on the town's outskirts.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1306807,00.html
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