BAGHDAD, 19 July 2004 — Fourteen people were killed yesterday when US planes bombed targets in the Sunni town of Fallujah. Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi gave the go-ahead for the attack, according to his office and the US military.
The strike was the sixth on the city since June 19. Yesterday’s attack targeted “foreign militants’ fighting positions and trench lines near the remains of a house,” according to a statement by US Brig. Gen. Erv Lessel.
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 airstrike in Fallujah that his government had provided the intelligence for the strike. Allawi consulted with US forces on Saturday about the strike, his office said.
Explosions from the strike about 2 a.m. rocked the town. Scores of people ran to the scene and dug through the wreckage looking for survivors. One witness said the house belonged to a “very poor family.” Angry crowds gathered around the house, chanting “Allah-o-Akbar.”
“We heard the sound of jetfighters and then we heard four explosions in the house occupied by civilian residents,” said Lt. Saad Khalaf of the Fallujah Brigade, a defense force that guards the city.
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 Hussein’s former army. Many of those who fought the Marines joined the brigade.
The US military said about 25 fighters loyal to Jordanian militant Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi were in the area just before yesterday’s attack.
The suspected Al-Qaeda ally’s organization claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings on Saturday, including one that just missed killing Iraq’s justice minister. Zarqawi’s group has also beheaded an American and a South Korean hostage and said last week it had killed one of two Bulgarian truck drivers it had kidnapped. Hopes are fading that the second Bulgarian is alive, diplomats say.
Bulgaria dispatched a team of experts to view a videotape of the truck driver’s execution that was sent to Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television, in the hope of positively identifying the dead man.
Zarqawi, who has a $25 million US bounty on his head, offered a reward of his own for anyone who kills Allawi. “The Khalid ibn Al-Walid Brigade announces to the Iraqi people a reward of 200,000 Jordanian dinars ($285,000) for the one who cuts the head of (Iyad) Allawi,” said a statement posted on a website. The statement’s authenticity could not be verified.
Guerrillas in Iraq are also holding a Filipino and an Egyptian hostage, both truck drivers, but there are indications they may soon be freed. The Philippines said it would complete the withdrawal of its military contingent from Iraq today, a move aimed at saving the life of hostage Angelo dela Cruz, a father of eight.
The US military said a senior Iraqi leader in Saddam’s elite Republican Guard had been captured near the ousted dictator’s hometown of Tikrit. US Maj. Neal O’Brien said US-led forces captured Sufian Maher Hassan, a major general in the now-disbanded Republican Guard, on July 16. “He is suspected of planning and financing attacks against the Iraqi people, Iraqi security forces and multinational forces,” O’Brien said.
Meanwhile, Iraq announced it would appoint ambassadors to 43 countries in a move designed to normalize relations with other nations. The ambassadors, many of whom will be sent to neighboring Arab countries, will be appointed today, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said during a joint news conference with US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
Armitage, the highest-ranking US official to visit the country since the June 28 transfer of sovereignty, earlier met with Allawi and President Ghazi Al-Yawer.
The officials discussed security cooperation between the two countries and efforts to have much of Iraq’s nearly $120 billion in debt forgiven, Allawi said.
“We are indebted to the United States for its support and continuing support both in liberating Iraq and reconstructing Iraq,” Allawi said after the meeting.
Armitage said the officials spoke about the security situation here, the political process leading to January elections and efforts to rebuild the economy.
— Additional input from agencies
