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Iraqi Airstrikes Kill 19 Near Fallujah
[VOA News] Iraqi government air strikes killed 19 people, including children, in Falluja on Monday and Tuesday, a health official in the bad boy-held city said.The Iraqi army has been shelling Falluja, 70 km (44 miles west of Baghdad), for months, trying to drive out the Sunni Lions of Islam from the group now known as Islamic State. The murderous Moslems, backed by discontented local Sunni tribal leaders, overran the city in January. Ahmed al-Shami, a front man for the Falluja health office — the local arm of the health ministry — said the 19 dead included women and kiddies and that Falluja hospital had also received 38 maimed people since Monday evening. Residents of Falluja and the nearby town of Garma said helicopters fired artillery and dropped three barrel bombs on Falluja and two on Garma. Barrel bombs — powerful makeshift weapons made from high explosives, cement and metal parts packed into oil drums, usually dropped from helicopters — have gained notoriety in the region because of their use in neighboring Syria by  Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... 's forces to flatten buildings in rebel-held areas. Scores of people have been killed since January in what residents describe as indiscriminate bombardment. In May, witnesses in Falluja said barrel bombs had been dropped on the city. The government denies indiscriminate attacks, saying it targets murderous Moslems, but a mid-level security officer in Anbar province has previously confirmed that barrel bombs have been dropped on Fallujah. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's military front man, Lieutenant-General Qassim Atta, was not immediately available to comment on this week's attacks. Posted by: Fred 2014-07-23 |
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