Friday, June 25, 2004

Bloody Day In IRAQ

At least 100 Iraqis and five US soldiers were killed and over 200 others injured in a series of coordinated attacks and clashes in several Iraqi cities Thursday, June 24.

Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel put the number of killed at 93 while other reports put it at around 75.

In a series of car bomb blasts in police stations in the northern city of Mosul, the Iraqi Health Ministry put the number of deaths at 44 people and 216 wounded, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Fighting in Al-Anbar province, where clashes erupted in Fallujah and Ramadi, saw at least nine people killed and 27 others wounded. Fighting around Baquba killed 13 and wounded 15, the ministry was quoted by Reuters as saying.

The US military also launched air strikes on the central city of Baquba, likewise the scene of heavy fighting, firing laser-guided missiles, a military official said. There was no immediate word of casualties in the raids.

The Iraqi fighters launched a pre-dawn assault on a US military patrol and a police station in Baquba, according to the 1st Infantry Division and an AFP correspondent.

"At approximately 5:30 am (0130 GMT) ... anti-Iraqi forces attacked a 1st Infantry Division patrol with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in the vicinity of the Mufrek Traffic Circle in Baquba, killing one 1st Infantry Division Soldier and wounding three," Major Neal O'Brien told AFP.

O'Brien said the city had been sealed off.

Medical sources said fifteen Iraqis were killed, including 11 policemen, and 22 civilians were wounded.

"We have received 15 dead bodies, of which 11 were policemen and the other four were civilians," said Hussein Ali, an official in charge of administration at the general hospital in Baquba, 60 kilometers (36 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

"In addition, we have 22 people with bullet wounds and injuries from bomb fragments," he said.

More Attacks

In Ramadi, the US military reported an attack on an agricultural center in the city and possibly on a police station.

US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad that four soldiers had been killed in the city.

He said the servicemen were conducting operations there, and that they had failed to check in with superiors at an appointed hour. He declined further comment until the families of the dead could be notified.

In Mosul, four car bombs exploded near police stations in the northern city. The US military said a US soldier and a private security guard were killed in the string car bombings.

The first car exploded at 9:05 am (0505 GMT) in front of the Wadi Hajar police station in the south of the city, leaving "many killed and wounded," said Colonel Mohammed Seddiq Al-Karkshi.

Seven people, mainly policemen, were killed and 20 wounded in a second car bomb attack Thursday less than half an hour later, a police officer said.

"We have seven dead and 20 wounded, many of them policemen," said Lieutenant Mohammed Mohannad Abdul Karim.

Two other stationsin the central Fathi district had also been hit, police said, but there were no further details.

The western sector of the city was deserted except for Iraqi fighters posted on street corners and inside buildings.

The fighting broke out after the dawn prayers when men, armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, assaulted the police station.

Two dead policemen lay in the street as fighters gripped Kalashnikovs behind the windows of buildings. A black flag fluttered behind them, according to AFP.

As anti-American sentiments, fuelled by finding no weapons of mass destruction as the main justification for the invasion, are growing in the oil-rich country, ordinary Iraqis accused their compatriots working with the occupation forces as collaborators.

Renewed Fallujah Clashes

Clashes also broke out early Thursday between US forces and fighters outside the resistance bastion of Fallujah, west of the capital, forcing locals to flee from parts of the city.

"We received order to close the highway because of heavy fighting," a US marine said on the roadway.

There was no immediate news on any casualties from the fighting.

In April, Fallujah was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting since last year's US-led invasion of Iraq as US forces killed more than 600 people in massive air raids of the densely-populated areas during the offensive.

The US military said Wednesday, June 23, that it killed 20 people in an air strike. It claimed that the casualties were foreign fighters on a suspected Zarqawi safehouse in Fallujah the previous day.

But according to the local hospital and witnesses, the strike killed three people - a local garage owner and his two sons - and wounded 10 others.

At least 24 Iraqis, including women and children, were killed in a US air strike of the western Baghdad city of Fallujah on Saturday, June 19.

Iraqi Defense Minister Yassin Sawid said the attacks are meant to obstruct the transfer of power from the US occupation forces to the Iraqi government.

ISLAM ONLINE

# ANTENNA SHARON | 1:30:00 pm |