Home > Falluja Air-Strike: Residents Dispute American Version
Baghdad, June 20 (NNN): Even as US forces claimed they targeted the members of a network headed by an al-Qaeda leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, on Saturday, local residents of the Iraqi city of Falluja on Sunday vehemently disputed an American account of the air attack in which at least 20 people were killed.
Reports quoting the residents said that women and children were among the dead, and that a second missile strike was aimed at rescuers trying to find victims of the first attack.
The American forces claimed they targeted the members of a network headed by an al-Qaeda leader, Zarqawi, However, they have not suggested that Zarqawi was caught in the assault.
In Baghdad, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said the house was being used by fighters loyal to Zarqawi, who Washington blames for a series of suicide bombings and the beheading of the American contractor, Nick Berg, whose death was filmed and broadcast on the internet.
"We have significant evidence that there were members of the Zarqawi network in the house," Brig Gen Kimmitt said.
"Today coalition forces conducted a strike on a known Zarqawi safe house in southwest Falluja based on multiple confirmations of actionable intelligence."
The air strike caused "multiple secondary explosions" - evidence of ammunition and roadside bomb materials stored there, he said.
Falluja residents alleged that two missiles were fired at a poor neighbourhood by a US aircraft at about 0930 local time (0530 GMT) on Saturday.
Pictures from the city showed houses reduced to rubble.
"An American plane hit this house and three others were damaged. Only body parts are left," a witness told news agency Reuters, as rescuers searched the wreckage for survivors.
"They brought us 22 corpses - children, women and youths," cemetery worker Ahmed Hassan told the agency. Hospital sources have also said women and children were among the dead.
Another witness, Wissam Ali Hamad, said the second missile had struck people trying to rescue casualties of the first.
It is worth mentioning here that last month, American forces were embroiled in a similar dispute after they bombed a group of people close to the border with Syria. They insisted they had responded to fire from foreign fighters; Iraqis said it had been a wedding party, and that 40 innocent people were killed.
Falluja has remained relatively calm since, but observers say the American military remains frustrated by its failure to rid the town of militants.