|
Eight Marines Killed in Iraq, US Aircrafts Raid Fallujah
 |
|
US forces are still coming under fierce resistance attacks in Fallujah. (AFP)
|
BAGHDAD,
December 13 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Eight US marines
were killed in weekend clashes with Iraqi fighters in Al-Anbar
province, the US military said Monday, December 13, casting doubts
over earlier claims Iraqi groups battling foreign troops in the
western Iraqi region were being defeated.
Meanwhile,
US warplanes pounded, a new, the eastern suburbs of the western
Baghdad city of Fallujah, the resistance hub in Al-Anbar, sending
columns of black smoke into the sky, reported an Agence France-Presse
(AFP) correspondent embedded with the marines.
The
strikes early Monday followed fierce fighting that killed the eight
marines and at least 17 “suspected rebels” [US term for Iraqi
fighters] in Al-Anbar since Friday, the US military said, without
specifying whether the marines' deaths occurred in Fallujah itself.
“Air
strikes were called in during escalation of force for troops in
contact,” a marine spokesman told AFP Monday.
Seven
marines assigned to the Ist Marine Expeditionary Force were killed in
action in two separate operations Sunday, the marines said in a
statement which gave no further details.
Another
marine was killed Saturday.
The
fighting erupted in Fallujah
after days of relative calm following last month's blistering
assault on the city by US and Iraqi troops.
US-led
troops had said they killed hundreds of fighters during the attack,
which began
November 8, but have continued to face resistance, often in
parts of the city they had previously claimed to be have been
“cleared.”
“They
hole themselves up in houses and they wait for the chance to kill an
American,” said Lieutenant Rex McIntosh of the 3rd Battalion, 1st
Marines.
|
|
US fighter jets keep pounding Fallujah. (AFP) |
He
added that many of those fighters still hiding in Fallujah's ruined
neighborhoods had escaped previous sweeps by the marines.
“There's
a fairly effective cordon around the city but not every unit has been
doing a full clearing,” McIntosh said, as his unit searched Sunday
house-to-house for fighters or weapons caches.
Marines
from the battalion found themselves in a running battle with fighters
that began Friday and raged until Saturday.
“We
had very, very heavy contact against a group -- you could call it a
cell -- which was bypassed in previous sweeping operations,”
McIntosh said. “By the end of Saturday afternoon we counted 17 dead
rebels.”
Clashes
erupted again Sunday as marines battled fighters in northeast
Fallujah, according to one marine, who told AFP the area was supposed
to have been cleared of fighters.
Large
explosions could be heard and flashes lit the sky Sunday night as jets
were heard overhead, the AFP correspondent said.
Marines
had earlier told AFP that fighters were creeping back into previously
cleared city blocks, and the military was in a race to seize weapons
caches before they could be used against them.
About
80-to-90 percent of Fallujah's 300,000-strong
population are said to have evacuated the city, escaping
the hell of continuous US air raids.
The
US occupation forces are planning a set of police
state measures to be strictly applied to any of the
battle-scarred city’s residents yearning to come back.
This
includes funneling Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers
on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities
through DNA testing and scanning.
Iraqi
Civilians Killed
|
|
Stability in Iraq seems a far-fetched dream. (AFP) |
In
another bloody incident Monday, at least seven Iraqis were killed and
19 others wounded when a car bomb exploded at a checkpoint outside the
highly-fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, according to hospital sources.
All
of the dead were Iraqi civilians, hospital and US military officials
told AFP.
“There
were no multinational forces personnel wounded or killed. There were
Iraqi casualties,” said US army Lieutenant Colonel James Hutton.
The
bomber drove up to a National Guard checkpoint at an entrance used by
contractors and Iraqis and blew up his car as he was waiting to be
searched, an Iraqi National Guard told AFP.
Four
civilian vehicles were destroyed in the blast, Hutton said, adding
that fire fighters were on the scene.
The
Green Zone houses Iraq's interim government, the headquarters of the
US forces and foreign embassies and is frequently targeted by bombing
attacks.
The
unabated violence in Iraq cast heavy doubts on the possibility and
practicality of holding on to an election deadline, scheduled by the
US-picked Iraqi interim government for January 30.
|
