|
Home>News Center>World | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Three US marines die in central Iraq: military
Two US marines were killed in action and one died later from wounds received during an operation in a restive Iraqi province, the US military said.
"Two marines assigned to First Marine Expeditionary Force were killed in action and one marine died of wounds received in action Monday in the (centre-west) Al-Anbar province while conducting security and stability operations," the military said in a statement.
The marines have now lost 10 men in just over one week on various operations around Al-Anbar province, home to the restive city of Fallujah from where US officials suspect alleged Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi and his supporters are operating.
US-led military forces have carried out several air raids on what they say are dens of the Jordanian Islamist in Fallujah, including their second major strike Monday since the transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government two days earlier.
At least 12 people died in Monday's raid when US warplanes dropped six large bombs, hospital and military sources said.
The attack is the fifth such raid over the past two weeks in Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, where previous air strikes targeted other suspected safe houses used by the Al-Qaeda-linked Zarqawi.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi issued a statement describing Iraq's involvement in the attack.
"After consultations between Iraqi government officials and multinational forces-Iraq, Iraqi security forces provided clear and compelling intelligence to conduct a precision strike this evening on a known Zarqawi safe house in southeastern Fallujah," Allawi said in the statement released late Monday.
It was the deadliest single incident since the US-led coalition handed power to a caretaker government on June 28 and the second such airstrike in the newly sovereign Iraq.
"We are working together with the multinational forces," said top government spokesman Gurgis Sada on Tuesday.
Iraqi security forces also offered information to the US-led military in the run-up to the previous airstrike on the night of June 30, he told AFP.
But "this is the first time that prime minister Allawi has made (such) an announcement," Sada said, explaining that it was to raise awareness about the coordinated work being carried out to tackle hotbeds like Fallujah.
"It was a success," the spokesman declared, when asked about the outcome of the latest attack.
Hospital sources said at least 12 people were killed and five wounded in the strike on a house in the Shuhada neighbourhood of the restive Sunni Muslim city.
The identity of the vitims was unclear.
In a bid to crush an insurgency that rose up during the US-led occupation, Iraq's caretaker government is preparing a set of emergency measures that include curfews and special detention powers to be announced this week.
It will also separately unveil an amnesty for insurgents not considered hardcore supporters of the resistance -- a move analysts described as intended to fracture the rebellion.
The announcement of the sweeping security measures was originally set for Monday, but the government delayed it amid last-minute tweaking. The prime minister's office and the interior, justice and human rights ministries were all actively involved in drafting the rules, said Sabah Kadhim, spokesman for the interior ministry. "This is the spirit of a new and democratic Iraq, unlike the old days when people just woke up to hear about a new decree," he said. Meanwhile, the US military was still unable to confirm the whereabouts of a Lebanese-born marine after a militant group claimed he had been released. The Islamic Retaliation Movement, which had previously threatened to behead Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, said on Monday the marine was "taken to a safe place," without specifying where, after agreeing "not to go back to the US army." US Marine spokesman Lieutenant Colonel TV Johnson reiterated on Tuesday that the military had no news of Hassoun's release and were still listing him as captured since he disappeared on June 21 from his base near Fallujah. An Iraqi child died and another was wounded when US soldiers shot at the car their father was driving after it failed to stop at a checkpoint in Baghdad Monday night despite repeated warnings, the US military said Tuesday. Checkpoints are considered combat areas and soldiers have the right under the rules of engagement to shoot if a vehicle approaching them fails to stop. |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
