Suspected Militant Hideout Bombed in Iraq

AP ^ | 9/13/04 | KIM HOUSEGO

[TexKat]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. warplanes pounded a suspected hideout of al-Qaida-linked militants in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah on Monday, killing at least 16 people and wounding 12, officials and witnesses said. The strike came a day after a surge in violence killed 78 people across Iraq.

The U.S. military said jets carried out a precision strike on a site in Fallujah where forces loyal to Jordanian-born terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were meeting.

"Intelligence sources reported the presence of several key al-Zarqawi operatives who have been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks against Iraqi civilians, Iraqi Security Forces and multinational forces," the military said in a statement.

The military said reports indicated the strikes had achieved their aim but did not name the operatives.

Witnesses said the bombing targeted the city's residential al-Shurta neighborhood, damaging buildings and raising clouds of black smoke.

Dr. Adel Khamis of the Fallujah General Hospital said at least 16 people were killed, including women and children, and 12 others wounded. An ambulance rushing from the area of the blasts was hit by a shell, killing the driver, a paramedic and five patients inside the vehicle, said another hospital official, Hamid Salaman.

"The conditions here are miserable — an ambulance was bombed, three houses destroyed and men and women killed," the hospital's director, Rafayi Hayad al-Esawi, told pan-Arab Al-Jazeera television by telephone. "The American army has no morals."

Witnesses said U.S. warplanes repeatedly swooped low over the city and that artillery units deployed on the outskirts of the city also opened fire. The explosions started at sunrise and continued for several hours.

One explosion went off in a marketplace in Fallujah as the first vendors began to set up their stalls, wounding several people and shattering windows, witnesses said.

U.S. forces pulled out of Fallujah in April after a three-week siege that left hundreds dead and a trail of devastation. The U.S. Marines have not patrolled inside Fallujah since then and Sunni insurgents have strengthened their hold on the city.

West of Baghdad, assailants broke into a local police station in Latifiyah and forced the handful of officers inside to leave before blowing up the building, police said Monday.

Nobody was injured in the Sunday night blast, said police Lt. Col. Sahi Abdullah. Iraqi police have regularly been attacked by insurgents who view them as collaborators with American troops.

Also Sunday, insurgents hammered central Baghdad with intense mortar and rocket barrages, heralding a day of violence that killed 78 people nationwide as security appeared to spiral out of control.

At least 37 people were killed in Baghdad alone. Many of them died when a U.S. helicopter fired on a disabled U.S. Bradley fighting vehicle as Iraqis swarmed around it, cheering, throwing stones and waving the black and yellow sunburst banner of Iraq's most-feared terror organization.

The dead from the helicopter strike included Arab television reporter Mazen al-Tumeizi. An Iraqi cameraman working for the Reuters news agency and an Iraqi freelance photographer for Getty Images were wounded.

The Health Ministry reported Monday that 78 people were killed in violence across the country Sunday, an increase it said was due to new reports of deaths overnight.

Some 200 people were wounded, more than half of them in Baghdad.

In a visit to the southern city of Basra, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi vowed to pursue insurgents.

"We are adamant that we are going to defeat terrorism," Allawi said. "We intend to confront them and bring them to justice."

Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged that the U.S.-led coalition faced a "difficult time" in Iraq but said the United States had a plan to quash the insurgency and bring those areas under control in time for national elections in January.

The insurgency "will be brought under control," Powell said on NBC's "Meet The Press." "It's not an impossible task."

Elsewhere, the governor of the northern Kurdish province of Dahuk escaped an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb went off as his car was passing by, police said. There were no injuries.

Gov Netshevan Ahmad was on his way to work in Dahuk when the device exploded, said police Col. Mohammed Doski. Nobody was injured in the attack.

It was the first such attack in the largely peaceful city of Dahuk and surrounding province that bears the same name since the U.S. invasion in Iraq began in March last year.

On the Iraqi political front, a government official announced Monday that Minister of State Qassim Dawoud has been designated as an adviser to the prime minister for national security, a government official said Monday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Cabinet shifted Dawoud's responsibility from minister of state for military affairs to minister of state for national security and an adviser to Allawi.

The move is likely to encroach on the political turf of Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie, and Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, whose responsibilities also include national security affairs. It was unclear how the three would coordinate their jobs.

Dawoud went on television last week to announce the capture of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, only to see the claim proved untrue.

[TexKat]

Iraqis inspect a destroyed car following U.S. air strikes in the town of Falluja, September 13, 2004. U.S. forces launched air strikes on the rebel-held city Monday, targeting what they said was a meeting of key loyalists of their top foe in Iraq, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Iraqi doctors at Falluja Hospital said 16 Iraqis were killed, including women and children. But the U.S. military said its intelligence suggested only Zarqawi followers were killed. (Mohammed Khodor/Reuters)

Iraqis inspect a destroyed house, following the U.S. air strikes in the town of Falluja, September 13, 2004. U.S. forces launched air strikes on the Iraqi town of Falluja on Monday, killing at least seven Iraqis, including women and children, a doctor said. Iyad Mohamed of Falluja Hospital said 10 other Iraqis had been injured in the strikes on different parts of the town, just west of Baghdad. REUTERS/Mohammed Khodor

Iraqis gather around the body of a refuse collector who was killed in an earlier raid. At least 15 people were killed and 20 wounded in a US air and ground assault on alleged Al-Qaeda operatives in the flashpoint city of Fallujah in the early hours September 13(AFP/File/Fares Dlimi)

A man displays shrapnel of a US missile as Iraqi firefighters extinguish fire from a building, near Haifa Street, central Baghdad. One person was killed and three others wounded in a US helicopter strike on a Baghdad commercial district, not far from the scene of heavy fighting between US troops and insurgents a day earlier, witnesses said.(AFP/Ahmed Fadaam)

Iraqi men dig a grave following U.S. air strikes on the town of Falluja, September 13, 2004. Photo by Mohammed Khodor/Reuters Iraqi doctors at Falluja Hospital said 16 Iraqis were killed, including women and children. But the U.S. military said its intelligence suggested only Zarqawi followers were killed. REUTERS/Mohammed Khodor

Iraqis gather near a destroyed Iraqi Red Crescent ambulance following a US air strike in the restive city of Fallujah. At least 15 people were killed as US jets spearheaded yet another assault on alleged Al-Qaeda fighters in Fallujah while Iraq's premier warned that key elections may be delayed in areas of unrest.(AFP/Fares Dlimi)

A local resident inspects a car in a parking lot that was allegedly fired upon by U.S. troops, in Sadr City, Iraq, Monday Sept. 13, 2004. Four cars were destroyed although no one was injured. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

[The Mayor]

Bump!

[TexKat]

A car burns on a bridge near the road leading from the Iraqi capital to the Baghdad airport. US soldiers set the vehicle on fire after suspecting that it was carrying explosives.(AFP)

An armed insurgent holds part of a US remote controlled drone in the restive Iraqi city of Fallujah. At least 15 people were killed as US jets spearheaded yet another assault on alleged Al-Qaeda fighters in Fallujah while Iraq's prime minister warned that key elections may be delayed in areas of unrest.(AFP/Fares Dlimi)

U.S. soldiers guard a check-point at the outskirts of the city of Tal Afar, some 390 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, September 13, 2004. The U.S. military is fighting in the northern town of Tal Afar, which it says has become a haven for foreign fighters crossing into Iraq from Syria. The town has been largely sealed off for several days. The Health Ministry said 51 people were killed there on Sunday. REUTERS/Namir Noor-Eldeen

A U.S. soldier guards the check-point on the outskirts of the city of Tal Afar, some 390 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, September 13, 2004. The U.S. military fighting in the northern town of Tal Afar says has become a haven for foreign fighters crossing into Iraq from Syria. The town has been largely sealed off for several days. The Health Ministry said 51 people were killed there on Sunday. REUTERS/Namir Noor-Eldeen

US troops patrol Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. Relative calm returned to the Iraqi capital a day after 13 people were killed during intense fighting around Baghdad's Haifa Street.(AFP/Sabah Arar)

[TexKat]

ping

[iopscusa]

Lesson to be learned, don't support or hang with the terrorist, insurgents or obvious targets and their ilk or suffer the consequences!

[katykelly]

Good.

[Logical me]

"The American army has no morals." Oh! And I'm supposed to feel sad. Well I can't. Has anyone forgot we now have over 1000 GI killed trying to help Iraq. And how about the hundreds of Iraqi citizens the terrorist have killed. I feel we should advise the counsel and wipe out all cities harboring the terrorist. Finish the job. Then on to two borders, Iran and Syria.

[TexKat]

A woman passes a shop that was gutted after a U.S. helicopter fired rockets in Haifa street, Baghdad, Iraq, Monday Sept. 13, 2004. One person was killed and one person was gravely injured in the attack, according to eyewitnesses. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Men are seen cleaning debris from the streets through a hole made in an apartment door in Haifa Street, Iraq, Monday Sept. 13, 2004. The hole was made on Sunday, when a U.S. helicopter shot at cheering crowd gathered near a burning Bradley fighting vehicle, next to the building. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

U.S. soldiers search an Iraqi man at the outskirts of the city of Tal Afar, some 390 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, September 13, 2004. The U.S. military is fighting in the northern town of Tal Afar, which it says has become a haven for foreign fighters crossing into Iraq from Syria. The town has been largely sealed off for several days. The Health Ministry said 51 people were killed there on Sunday. REUTERS/Namir Noor-Eldeen

A local resident inspects damage done to his house after U.S. warplanes and artillery bombed the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, Iraq, Monday Sept. 13, 2004. Hospital officials and witnesses said at least 16 people died and 12 others were injured. The U.S. military said jets carried out a precision strike on a site where several members of an al-Qaida-linked group led by Jordanian-born terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were meeting. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A U.S. Marine watches a suicide bomber blow up with a pickup truck packed with artillery shells at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday Sept. 12, 2004, in this photo released Sunday. Marines opened fire and the vehicle exploded before reaching the main security wall, killing the driver, the military said in a statement. (AP Photo/US Military HO) Add

[TexKat]

Check out the last pix in post #8.

[McGavin999]

Looks like the gloves have come off. Good. The only way to fight these guys is on THEIR terms. Ambulance my butt, they were using it as as escape vehicle.

[TexKat]

Six killed in US assault south of Baghdad: doctor

MUSSAYEB, Iraq (AFP) - Six Iraqi villagers were killed and seven wounded Sunday when US troops destroyed four homes in Snaidijeh, south of Baghdad, police and medics said.

"We have received six bodies, including four brothers and their two cousins, and have treated six injured and transferred a woman to Baghdad because she was so seriously wounded," said the director of the nearby Mussayeb hospital.

Another doctor, Ibrahim al-Janabi, who lives in the village, said seven artillery shells where fired from a US outpost in the Mussayeb power station that destroyed four homes.

US military spokesmen had no immediate comment.

[TexKat]

A banner depicting the two Italian hostages Simona Torretta (L) and Simona Pari hang out of the Campidoglio in Rome September 11, 2004. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini appealed to Arab countries on September 13 to help win the release of the two hostages as an apparent deadline to kill them drew near. (Max Rossi/Reuters)

Italy Races to Save Hostages Before Deadline

By Haitham Haddadin

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini appealed to Arab countries on Monday to help win the release of two Italian hostages as an apparent deadline to kill them drew near.

A group calling itself the Islamic Jihad Organization said in a Web site statement on Sunday that Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, who worked on projects to help Iraqi children, would be killed unless Italy withdrew its troops from Iraq.

"Please help us free them," Frattini pleaded with Kuwait and Arab countries, speaking through interpreters at the Grand Mosque in Kuwait City on the first stop of a Gulf tour.

"I have felt here a sense of solidarity with the hostages, including the two Italians who went to Iraq to serve the Iraqi people," he added, before heading off for talks with Kuwaiti officials and religious leaders over the crisis.

The two Italian women, both 29, were the first Western women to be kidnapped in Iraq where anti-Western militants have seized numerous foreign hostages since April. More than two dozen have been killed.

"We will extend our deadline 24 hours from the issue of this statement. After that, if we don't see Italian soldiers withdrawing from Iraq, we will implement execution," said the statement signed by the Islamic Jihad Organization.

Italy, which has the third largest military contingent in Iraq with 2,700 troops, has repeatedly said it will not bow to demands by militants to pull out of Iraq.

NEW DRAMA

The authenticity of Sunday's statement could not be verified and unlike previous kidnappings no video footage or photographs of the two has been released. The statement appeared on the bulletin board of a Web site often used by militant groups. Sometimes such claims have turned out to be false.

A number of other Islamic militant groups have also claimed responsibility for abducting the Italian women.

In the latest kidnapping drama, militants loyal to al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said they had killed a Turkish hostage, posting a videotape on the Internet on Monday showing armed men slitting his throat.

In the tape, a blindfolded Durmus Kumdereli urged transport companies and drivers not to work in Iraq, saying they were "only serving the occupiers."

The video was posted on the Web site of Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad Group on Monday, but the tape showed a date of August 17, three days after Kumdereli was abducted along with another Turkish driver.

The United States has offered a $25 million reward for the capture of Zarqawi, its top militant target in Iraq.

The seizure of Pari and Torretta along with two Iraqi colleague on Sept. 7 has stirred strong emotions in Italy -- partly because they are women, but also because they worked for a charity that opposed the U.S.-led Iraqi invasion.

At least seven Italians have been kidnapped in recent months in Iraq. Two were subsequently killed, including journalist Enzo Baldoni.

Guerrillas in Iraq have kidnapped people from over two dozen countries since April as part of a campaign to drive foreign troops and firms out.

The Italians were seized after two French journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, were captured in Iraq on August 20. There has been no word on their fate despite a French diplomatic offensive to win their release.

[katykelly]

I get the idea the AP wants me to feel bad about all of this.

[TexKat]

Local residents look at damage done to houses after U.S. warplanes and artillery bombed the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, Iraq, Monday, Sept. 13, 2004. Hospital officials and witnesses said at least 20 people died and 29 were injured. The U.S. military said jets carried out a precision strike on a site where several members of an al-Qaida-linked group led by Jordanian-born terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were meeting. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Iraqis shout anti-U.S. slogans as they carry the coffin of Badl Slman, one of the victims of U.S. air strikes in the town of Falluja, September 13, 2004. U.S. forces launched air strikes on the Iraqi town of Falluja on Monday, killing at least seven Iraqis, including women and children, a doctor said. REUTERS/Mohammed Khodor

[WOSG]

PING - Iraqi news

[ChinaThreat]

Agreed, looks like we are taking the gloves off. I think we are about to unleash some hell on Fallujah in the next few weeks based on some comments by Allawi.

What I like the best here is the fact our choppers fired on the disabled Bradley. It may have killed some people not involved in the attack, but jumping up and down on a vehicle that was attacked and our troops almost killed makes you a target. As for the journalists, well, maybe they will think twice about showing up at one of these Islamo-Nazi redneck scenes of hooping and hollering over dead US troops or damaged equipment.

This should be standard policy. I think we may be loosening up the rules of engagement and finally realizing that intimidation is a useful tactic with thugs. It worked on the bully who wanted my lunch money in the 2nd grade, it will work on these Iraqi scum bags to.

[TexKat]

Friends and colleagues of Mazen Tomeizi carry his coffin ahead of a memorial procession in front of the Al-Arabiya office in Baghdad, September 13, 2004. Tomeizi, a Palestinian producer with Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV channel, was killed on Sunday as a U.S. helicopter fired at a group of Iraqis around a burning U.S. Bradley armored vehicle in one of Baghdad's main streets, witnesses said. REUTERS/Ceerwan Aziz

Friends and colleagues of Mazen Tomeizi offer prayers outside of the Al Arabiya TV channel office in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Sept. 13, 2004. Tomeizi, a Palestinian producer of the Dubai-based channel, was killed Sunday as a U.S. helicopter fired at a group of Iraqis cheering around a burning U.S. Bradley armored vehicle in Baghdad. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Australian soldiers on patrol in Baghdad. Australia said it was "moving heaven and earth" to investigate claims that two Australians had been kidnapped in Iraq in a bid to force the government to withdraw its troops from the country.(AFP/File/Ahmad Al-Rubaye)

[TexKat]

Iraqi National Congress Member Fired

By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress has fired one of its most senior members for visiting Israel, a spokesman for the group said Monday.

During an emergency meeting, the leadership of the former exile group decided to "fire Mithal al-Alusi from the Iraqi National Conference," spokesman Haidar al-Mousawi told The Associated Press.

Al-Alusi's visit to a terrorism conference angered his colleagues, who said they learned about the trip from the media. A part of Chalabi's inner circle, al-Alusi headed the de-Baathification Committee, which fired thousands of members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from their jobs.

Israel's daily Haaretz quoted al-Alusi as saying that many elements in Iraq are interested in diplomatic ties with Israel.

"His statements, which were carried by the media, do not represent the Iraqi National Congress' point of view," an INC statement said.

Iraq had been one of Israel's harshest enemies in the Arab world until the collapse of Saddam's regime. Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has said Iraq will not make any move to normalize relations with Israel before other Arab nations do so.

Chalabi is a former member of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council and currently is a member of the National Council, a 100-member transitional assembly intended to serve as a watchdog over the interim Iraqi government until January elections.

Once a Pentagon favorite, Chalabi fell from grace among Washington officials this spring amid allegations his group alerted Iran that the United States had broken a secret Iranian communications code. Chalabi denies that.

Al-Mousawi, the INC spokesman in Baghdad, said he was not aware of previous contacts between INC officials and Israelis.

[TexKat]

Australia "moving heaven and earth" to investigate Iraq kidnap claim

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia said it was "moving heaven and earth" to investigate claims that two Australians had been kidnapped in Iraq in a bid to force the government to withdraw its troops from the country.

A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the government had been in contact with its embassy in Baghdad and other sources in Iraq to check the kidnap claim.

"We are moving heaven and earth to get as much information as we can," he said.

"We have no more information (other than media reports). Obviously through the department (of Foreign Affairs) we are checking this out as a matter of priority," he said.

"We are in contact with our embassy in Baghdad and obviously other contacts in Iraq."

A spokesman for the foreign ministry said it was unknown if those believed kidnapped were military or civilian.

A statement in the name of the "Horror Brigades" of the Islamic Secret Army handed out in the Sunni Muslim insurgent bastion of Samarra said the Australians and two East Asians have been kidnapped.

The statement, obtained by AFP, gave Australia a 24-hour deadline to end its involvement in Iraq or the hostages would be executed.

[capocchio]

the strikes had achieved their aim

With laser and GPS guided munitions systems, their aim is usually pretty good.