Iraqis Condemn Prime Minister After Falluja Raid
After the latest U.S. air strike on Falluja, enraged residents clasped wounded children and challenged Iraq's prime minister to visit the town to see how bombs were hitting civilians, not "terrorists."
"Is this a terrorist? Is this a terrorist? Iyad Allawi come and show us the terrorists," screamed a man as he fixed a bandage on the head of a small boy in his arms.
A U.S. warplane struck Falluja late Friday night, the latest in a weeks-long campaign of bombardments the U.S. military says are targeting hideouts used by followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most hunted man in Iraq.
Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, has been in rebel hands since U.S. forces withdrew following a failed offensive on the city in April.
Since the handover of power to an Iraqi government in June, U.S. forces are supposed to get a green light from the Iraqi government before conducting any air strikes. But many Iraqis believe Washington often acts of its own accord.
The U.S. military has repeatedly said that it conducts air strikes on Falluja only when it has specific intelligence and says that it only makes "precision strikes" on those targets.
After Friday's attack, hospital officials said at least seven civilians were killed and 13 wounded. Reuters television pictures showed Iraqis digging through mounds of rubble and twisted metal hoping to find survivors.
At one point, a child no older than 10 was pulled alive from under a pile of bricks and dust.
U.S. military officials have suggested that insurgents have pressured doctors into exaggerating casualty tolls and have cast doubt on television footage, indicating that scenes after air strikes may have been staged.
Reuters television footage of the destruction after Friday night's strike showed panicked men using their bare hands to dig out bodies. One man lay face down, covered by a heavy slab of cement over his waist and legs.
Such scenes are familiar to the people of Falluja, who say they have seen no evidence backing U.S. assertions that insurgents and foreign fighters were operating from houses that are flattened by U.S. warplanes.
Amid the screams and groans of children having their wounds stitched at a Falluja hospital Saturday, a young girl pulled dead from the rubble lay on thin mat on the floor.
Allawi's U.S.-backed government is scrambling to regain control of several rebel-held cities before elections are due in January, and put an end to suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Iraqi police and civilians.
As part of that campaign, U.S. and Iraqi forces launched an offensive against the rebel stronghold of Samarra early on Friday, killing more than 100 insurgents in fierce fighting.
The U.S. military has said the air raids on Falluja have killed scores of militants loyal to Zarqawi, who's group Washington says is allied to Osama bin Laden. It recently said as many as 100 of Zarqawi's followers had been killed in aerial bombardments and other strikes.
"Is this a terrorist? Is this a terrorist? Iyad Allawi come and show us the terrorists," screamed a man as he fixed a bandage on the head of a small boy in his arms.
A U.S. warplane struck Falluja late Friday night, the latest in a weeks-long campaign of bombardments the U.S. military says are targeting hideouts used by followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most hunted man in Iraq.
Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, has been in rebel hands since U.S. forces withdrew following a failed offensive on the city in April.
Since the handover of power to an Iraqi government in June, U.S. forces are supposed to get a green light from the Iraqi government before conducting any air strikes. But many Iraqis believe Washington often acts of its own accord.
The U.S. military has repeatedly said that it conducts air strikes on Falluja only when it has specific intelligence and says that it only makes "precision strikes" on those targets.
After Friday's attack, hospital officials said at least seven civilians were killed and 13 wounded. Reuters television pictures showed Iraqis digging through mounds of rubble and twisted metal hoping to find survivors.
At one point, a child no older than 10 was pulled alive from under a pile of bricks and dust.
U.S. military officials have suggested that insurgents have pressured doctors into exaggerating casualty tolls and have cast doubt on television footage, indicating that scenes after air strikes may have been staged.
Reuters television footage of the destruction after Friday night's strike showed panicked men using their bare hands to dig out bodies. One man lay face down, covered by a heavy slab of cement over his waist and legs.
Such scenes are familiar to the people of Falluja, who say they have seen no evidence backing U.S. assertions that insurgents and foreign fighters were operating from houses that are flattened by U.S. warplanes.
Amid the screams and groans of children having their wounds stitched at a Falluja hospital Saturday, a young girl pulled dead from the rubble lay on thin mat on the floor.
Allawi's U.S.-backed government is scrambling to regain control of several rebel-held cities before elections are due in January, and put an end to suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Iraqi police and civilians.
As part of that campaign, U.S. and Iraqi forces launched an offensive against the rebel stronghold of Samarra early on Friday, killing more than 100 insurgents in fierce fighting.
The U.S. military has said the air raids on Falluja have killed scores of militants loyal to Zarqawi, who's group Washington says is allied to Osama bin Laden. It recently said as many as 100 of Zarqawi's followers had been killed in aerial bombardments and other strikes.
posted by R7 | 10/02/2004 07:06:00 PM
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