Fallujah Massacre of Iraqi Troops, with 14 Dead
On Friday in Fallujah, a suicide bomber targeted a gathering of Iraqi troops near the headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party. He killed 14, and wounded 8. The IIP has been targeted by guerrillas for its relative willingness to cooperate with the US. US officials have on more than one occasion boasted that Fallujah is the safest city in Iraq in the aftermath of last November’s US assault on it, which left 2/3s of the buildings damaged and most of the population refugees.
Reports are confused, and it is not clear if all the killed and wounded are Iraqi soldiers, or if any Americans were among the casualties. US military personnel were in the vicinity.
Guerrillas also fired mortar shells at the Babel Hotel in downtown Baghdad; no word of casualties yet.
‘ The police also said that overnight fighting and early Saturday killed ten people, including a woman, and around 12 were injured in separate armed attacks and car bombings in different parts of the country. The casualties included Iraqi civilians, troops and policemen. ‘
BBC World Monitoring reports from Al-Arabiyah on June 17:
‘ At 1405 gmt, Al-Sharqiyah said: “A mosque in the Al-Habbaniyah Sub-District in Al-Anbar Governorate was the target of a booby-trapped car, which claimed the lives of five civilians. A US Army statement said that the car blew up yesterday afternoon, and that 15 civilians were also wounded in the explosion. ‘
A Sunni mosque in Anbar? Why would Sunni guerrillas hit that? Is this another attack on pro-American Sufis? Did the local imam cut a deal? Will try to find out more.
All this against the backdrop of two military operations by US Marines in Anbar province near the Syrian border against guerrillas and jihadi infiltrators, in which the Americans are claiming to have killed dozens of guerrillas.
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