US airstrike hits Fallujah; 4 killed
BAGHDAD --The US military launched another air strike early today against a suspected hideout of terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Fallujah. It was the fourth attack this month against insurgency targets in the city.
The raid came hours after rebels fired mortar rounds at a US base on the outskirts of Baghdad's airport, wounding 11 soldiers and starting a fire that burned for more than an hour.
That attack, along with a car bomb that exploded outside a police headquarters in Samawah, 150 miles south of the capital, added to the evidence that insurgents have no plans of letting up attacks, even after US coalition authorities handed over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on Monday.
Fallujah residents contacted by telephone said US jets fired missiles at a house on the eastern side of the city. Dr. Loai Ali of the Fallujah General Hospital said four people were killed and 10 injured.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for the multinational force, said the attack was launched after ''multiple confirmations of Iraqi and multinational intelligence."
''This operation employed precision weapons to attack the safe house and underscores the resolve of multinational and Iraqi security forces to jointly destroy terrorist networks within Iraq," Kimmitt said. He did not mention casualties or provide other details in his statement.
US forces had mounted four previous airstrikes against suspected terrorist hideouts in the past week. On Friday, US jets pounded a suspected hideout of Zarqawi, killing up to 25 people, US officials said.
US authorities also announced yesterday that they have increased to $25 million the reward for information leading to the arrest of Zarqawi. The increase, disclosed by the State Department, more than doubles the previous offering of $10 million that was set in February and puts Zarqawi on par with Saddam Hussein, now jailed. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has a $50 million bounty on his head.
Meanwhile, police slapped a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew on the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, a day after discovering about 150 pounds of explosives in a white BMW, police Brigadier Ghalib al-Jazaari said.
One Libyan man who allegedly entered Iraq from neighboring Syria to fight US forces was detained in connection with the explosives find, incident, Jazaari said.
The police chief also said militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada-al-Sadr kidnapped 25 policemen Tuesday in Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, in response to the arrest of two of their colleagues but released 16 of them yesterday.
Ahmad al-Shibani, a Sadr spokesman, confirmed the kidnappings, but said all 25 had been freed. ''We just wanted to teach them a lesson," he said.
Guerrillas fired at least 10 mortar rounds at the logistics base at Baghdad's airport at about 8:15 a.m., said Lieutenant Colonel Richard Rael, their commander. The base is operated by the New Mexico Army National Guard's 515 Corps Support Battalion.
''We're OK," Rael said. ''We'll get back to business as usual."
The base has been subject to almost daily mortar attacks, but this was the first time the attacks caused significant casualties and damage. Two people were wounded in the car bombing in Samawah, which set two other vehicles ablaze, a hospital official said.
Meanwhile, the United States replaced the military officer running the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, in what officials described as a routine rotation.
