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25 People Killed In Fallujah Attacks
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Last
week saw a rise in attacks targeting U.S.-appointed Iraqi
policemen
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FALLUJAH,
Iraq, February 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – At least
25 people were killed and
scores others wounded early on Saturday, February 14, in two separate
attacks on police facilities in the flashpoint town of Fallujah, west
of Baghdad.
Two
Iraqi policemen were killed at around 7:30 am (04:30 GMT) in an attack
on Fallujah’s Police Directorship, reported Aljazeera television.
One
hour later, a group of fighters attacked the U.S.-appointed Iraqi
Civil Defense Corps (ICDC) in the same town with rocket-propelled
grenades and automatic weapons, sparking a fierce gunbattle with
policemen, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Raed
Hussein, a police official in Fallujah, told AFP that ten policemen
and ICDC members were killed as well as nine civilians and four of the
attackers.
He
identified two of the attackers as Lebanese nationals, adding that a
fifth attacker was arrested following the gunbattle, which lasted 15
minutes.
"Unknown
men fired mortars, explosives and light machine guns from four
directions," police officer Earazan Abu Issa told Reuters news
agency.
"Their
weapons were more powerful than our Kalashnikovs," he said.
This
followed deadly attacks on Iraqi police stations and a recruiting army
center in addition to a bold one on the life of the Chief of U.S.
Central Command, General John Abizaid, who escaped unharmed.
On
Thursday, February 12, a convoy carrying Abizaid and Major General
Charles Swannack, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, was
targeted with RPGs as it traveled through Fallujah.
The
attack is the second against a high ranking U.S. official in Iraq
since the U.S.-led war to occupy the country was declared over on May
1.
U.S.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz escaped
a rocket attack on his hotel while on a visit to
Baghdad last October.
On
Wednesday, February 11, a booby-trapped car rammed
into a recruiting facility of the U.S.-formed new Iraqi army
in Baghdad, killing at least 47 people.
A
car bombing in front of a police station in Iskandariya, south of
Baghdad, also killed
up to 50 people Tuesday, February 10.
The
latest in the bloody spate of attacks came as a United Nations top
envoy sided
with the U.S. Friday, February 13, ruling out call for direct and snap elections and warning of
civil war in Iraq.
The
United States claims that there is not sufficient time to organize
elections before the planned June 30 handover of power.
Washington
wants regional caucuses to choose a provisional government that would
govern until elections in 2005.
Last
month, tens of thousands of Shiites took
to the streets to support Shiite authority Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani's unrelenting call for direct elections.
Before
the U.N. fact-finding visit, the U.S.-sanctioned interim Governing
Council said the U.N. election advice was non-binding.
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