7 killed in US air raids on Fallujah
2 Macedonians executed in Iraq
AFP, Baghdad
US aircraft and artillery strikes pounded suspected weapons warehouses in the insurgent bastion of Fallujah overnight leaving seven people dead and three others wounded, hospital officials said as hundreds of British troops prepared to move closer to Baghdad to help crush rebel strongholds. The Fallujah general hospital's Dr Saleh Hussein said most victims had been evacuated from the Shuhada district. The US army earlier said that two raids were carried out in the area late Thursday. US marine spokesman Lieutenant Lyle Gilbert said that marines carried out new air raids and opened artillery fire at arms caches in the southeast of the city. The marines said they were eliminating weapons warehouses in the area, considered a hub for suspected al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi. "It's artillery you hear ... (and) AC-130 aircraft are engaging known weapons caches in southeastern Fallujah," said Gilbert after artillery and air strikes shook Fallujah. An AFP correspondent reported thunderous booms shaking the city's southern Shuhada district. Flames lit the sky, while US aircraft droned overhead, he added. Gilbert said the attacks on the weapons warehouses were triggering secondary explosives. Earlier, marines and insurgents clashed when rebels fired on marine positions with "small arms, RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) and mortars near the city" at 5:00 pm (1400 GMT), the military said. "Marines countered these attacks with substantial and proportionate ground fires and air-delivered precision strikes." Fallujah has seen almost daily strikes on suspected safe houses of Zarqawi, blamed for many of the car bombings and kidnappings in Iraq. Determined to regain control of the no-go zone, more than 1,000 joint forces have encircled the city for the last week. Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi last week ordered Fallujah residents to surrender Zarqawi or face invasion. Allawi on Thursday narrowly escaped a mortar attack while on a trip to Mosul, in the north of the country, as officials expressed concern about a lack of experts on the ground to help prepare for landmark elections set for January because of security fears. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari lamented the fact that the dangerous climate was keeping UN experts out of the country. The United Nations largely pulled out of Iraq after its Baghdad headquarters was targeted in a suicide car bombing in August 2003 that killed 22 staff.
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