The U.S. this evening zapped launched a third ``precision'' strike on suspected terrorists in Fallujah in a 24-hour period, and at least 53 people died in violence across Iraq today, the U.S. military and the Iraqi Health Ministry said. Forty-four people were killed today in an earlier U.S. strike near Fallujah, west of the capital, and at least 27 were hurt, Health Ministry spokesman Saad al-Amily said in a telephone interview from Baghdad. He said 17 children and 2 women were among the wounded, adding that it isn't known who was included in the dead.
| "Puppies, kittens, baby ducks, fluffy bunnies... It was awful!" |
This evening's strike killed three people and injured three others in Fallujah, Agence France-Presse reported. The U.S. said it had ``no indication any innocent civilians were in the immediate vicinity of the meeting location,'' which was held near a mosque and school.
Before this evening's strike at about 9:30 p.m., the U.S. received ``multiple sources of intelligence (that) indicated the presence of approximately 10 Zarqawi terrorists at a meeting point in central Fallujah,'' the U.S. military said in an e- mailed statement, referring to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who the U.S. says has ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network. The earlier air strike was carried out in south-central Fallujah at about 2:45 a.m. local time, the military said in an e- mailed statement. ``Multi-National Forces-Iraq conducted a precision strike and destroyed a terrorist compound known to be used by the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi terrorists,'' the military said. That strike followed one late yesterday on a ``terrorist meeting site'' used by al-Zarqawi in the town of Qaryat ar Rufush, according to a separate military statement. About 60 insurgents died in yesterday's strike, the military said. |