Fierce clashes erupted Saturday in Fallujah as an American military convoy entered the southeastern industrial Shuhada neighborhood and nearby Nueimiya village — an apparent probing foray on the city's edges. Explosions and gunfire rocked the area and smoke was seen billowing in the air, witnesses said. Marines responded with heavy artillery fire after insurgents shot mortar shells from positions in the southeast of the city. About 4 p.m. a Marine Harrier jet bombed a mortar position inside Fallujah and strafed it with machine-gun fire, "neutralizing the target and any threat," said Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert.
In Baghdad, a car bomb blasted the offices of the Al-Arabiya television network in the upscale Mansour neighborhood, killing seven people and wounding 19, according to police and hospital officials. Three bodies, including one of a woman, were mutilated beyond recognition, said Al-Arabiya correspondent Najwa Qassem. She said they could not tell if any of the three bodies were those of Al-Arabiya employees. However, she confirmed that one guard and one administration worker were among the dead. The blast collapsed the first floor of the building, where staffers were holding a meeting, said Saad al-Husseini, a correspondent of MBC, a sister channel of Al-Arabiya based in the same building. Employees "were trapped between fire and the shattering shards of glass," he said. That "led to the high number of casualties. We were all there."
A militant group calling itself the "1920 Brigades" claimed responsibility for the attack, blasting Al-Arabiya as "Americanized spies speaking in Arabic tongue" in a statement posted on the Web. "We have threatened them to no avail that they are the mouthpiece of the American occupation in Iraq (news - web sites)," the statement said. It warned of more attacks against this "treacherous network." It was impossible to verify the claim's authenticity. The group said Elie Nakouzi — the Christian Lebanese anchor who presents the TV program "From Iraq" — is No. 1 on their hit list. Nakouzi used to present the program from the network's offices in Baghdad before he was relocated to their studios in Dubai amid fears he would be targeted. |