- FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. warplanes
bombed houses in the Iraqi city of Fallujah for a third successive night,
killing at least eight people, four of them children, doctors and residents
said on Thursday.
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- A statement from the U.S. military said the air assault
was part of a "precision strike" on an operating base for Jordanian
militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a man Washington says is allied to Osama
bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
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- A doctor at Fallujah's main hospital, Rafi Hayad, said
four of those killed were children and two women. He said at least 16 people
had been wounded, eight of them children.
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- Bloodied bodies lay on hospital beds while residents
with flashlights searched for more victims in the rubble.
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- The strike was launched shortly after 2 a.m. (6 p.m.
EDT) on a northern district of Fallujah, a city of around 250,000 people
which has been a focus of anti-American activity since the U.S.-led invasion
and is largely under guerrilla control.
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- Witnesses said at least two houses had been destroyed
and said those killed came from three families. The U.S. military said
the target was a "building frequently used by terrorists."
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- "Three Zarqawi associates were reported to be
in the area, no other individuals were present at the time of the strike,"
the military said in a statement.
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- U.S. forces have carried out around a dozen air strikes
on Falluja over recent weeks, in one case hitting a truck lot. On each
occasion Fallujah residents have said civilians were killed and that Zarqawi
was not in the area.
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- The strike came hours after a U.S. helicopter crashed
in the desert near the western city. It was not clear what brought the
aircraft down, but the U.S. military said the four crew were rescued and
did not suffer life threatening injuries.
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- U.S. troops have been engaged in intense fighting around
Falluja and in the eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City in recent days,
incurring some of their heaviest losses in weeks. At least 10 U.S. soldiers
have been killed since Monday.
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- The U.S. death toll in Iraq since the invasion in March
2003 surpassed 1,000 this week, the Pentagon said, hitting a psychologically
damaging mark that is likely to figure prominently in the U.S. presidential
election campaign.
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- In May last year, President Bush declared major combat
in Iraq over, but since then more than 800 U.S. soldiers have been killed
in action -- around two a day.
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- Heavy Clashes
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- U.S. troops and Iraqi forces were engaged in heavy
clashes around the northern Iraq town of Tal Afar overnight. As well as
continuing fighting, Iraq's interim government is struggling to contain
a widening hostage crisis.
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- In one of the most brazen abductions so far, two Italian
women aid workers and two Iraqi colleagues were snatched from their office
in central Baghdad in broad daylight on Tuesday. No word has yet emerged
from their captors.
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- On Wednesday, international aid agencies met to consider
withdrawing from Iraq. Jean-Dominique Bunel, a Frenchman helping to coordinate
aid groups operating in Iraq, said he expected most of the remaining 50
foreign aid workers to pull out soon.
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- Since April, people from more than two dozen countries
have been kidnapped as guerrillas have tried to force foreign troops and
firms to leave. More than 20 foreigners have been killed.
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- The kidnapping of the Italians has piled more pressure
on Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, most of whose voters strongly oppose
Italy's role in Iraq. Italy has the third largest military contingent in
the country, with 2,700 troops.
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- In August, Islamic guerrillas kidnapped and killed
Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni. Security guard Fabrizio Quattrocchi was
shot in the back of the head by his captors in April.
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- The latest abductions are likely to fuel uncertainty
over the fate of two French journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges
Malbrunot, who have been held since August 20 despite intense diplomatic
efforts to free them.
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