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US
Fire Kills 128 Iraqis in 24 Hours
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A cradle lies on the rubble as Iraqis survey the damage from overnight raids in Fallujah
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FALLUJAH,
September 13 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A sweeping US
incursion into the western Iraqi city of Fallujah killed early Monday,
September 13, 18 Iraqis and injured up to 26 others one day after some
110 people were killed by US gunfire and roadside attacks in one of
the bloodiest days witnessed by the occupied country.
Tanks,
artillery and warplanes were used in Monday’s deadly offensive that
also blew up civilian cars and houses, Al-Jazeera satellite channel
reported.
Many
residents were forced to flee their homes as the US military closed
the city’s gateways to the panic of the already horrified civilians.
The
US troops used loudspeakers to urge the city’s residents to
cooperate with them to crush the “insurgents” and “foreign
terrorist”, the Doha-based all-news channel added.
Four
dead bodies, ravaged by the missile strike, were taken straight to the
cemetery for burial after a US warplane struck a civilian car driving
along a new motorway west of Fallujah, an Agence France-Presse (AFP)
correspondent said.
At
least 26 people were wounded, including women and children, when US
artillery and tanks pounded the northern Fallujah districts of
Al-Geghigh and Al-Shurga from around 4:00 am (midnight GMT).
The
shelling lasted for nearly two hours before a US plane struck houses
in Al-Shurga, an AFP correspondent said.
One
house was completely flattened by the missile and two others were
partially destroyed, the reporter saw, as ambulances ferried the
wounded to hospital.
Heavy
sniper fire and sporadic shelling continued to reverberate in the
northern outskirts of the city as US warplanes circled overhead at
around 8:20 a.m. and deafening explosions could be heard coming from
the same area.
The
US air force had relentlessly
pounded Fallujah last week after seven marines and
three Iraqi national guardsmen were killed in a car bombing last
Monday.
Residents
of Fallujah have often countered US claims that resistance fighters
were being attacked, saying that those coming under fire were ordinary
Iraqi civilians.
In
April, at least 700 Iraqis, mostly
women and children, were killed and 1500 others injured
when the US occupation forces imposed a tight siege on the city and
intensified air strikes on its densely-populated areas.
110
Iraqis Killed
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Bodies lie on the back of a pick-up following a US air strike
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The
shelling came only hours after at least 110 people were killed across
Iraq Sunday, September 12, by US gunfire and roadside bombs.
The
Iraqi Health Ministry said the worst casualties were in Baghdad, where
37 were killed, and in Tal Afar near the Syrian border where 51 people
died following deadly raids by US occupation troops, Reuters news
agency reported.
Witnesses
and officials said 13 people were
killed and 61 wounded in fierce battles in central
Baghdad.
A
US helicopter opened fire on a crowd milling around a burning US
armored vehicle, killing a television journalist reporting from the
scene.
The
US justified launching the missile by saying it did not want the burnt
tank to be “looted”.
In
Ramadi, west of Baghdad, US tanks and helicopters fired on a
residential district, killing 10 Iraqis, including women and children,
a doctor said.
In
Samarra, north of Baghdad, five Iraqis were killed and a fourth
injured when roadside bombs hit their vehicles.
Five
Iraqi policemen were also killed in the northern city of Mosul when a
police station came under a mortar attack.
The
Iraqi capital also suffered at least seven car bombs, and resistance
fighters fired a dozen mortar bombs around the so-called Green Zone
compound housing Iraq's interim government and the US embassy.
Six
Iraqis were killed in the attacks, which were one of the deadliest so
far in Iraq.
South
of Baghdad, three Polish soldiers were killed and three wounded when
they were attacked near Hilla.
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