US raid in Iraq kills 12
2004-07-05 20:24
Fallujah - At least 12 people were killed in a US air strike on a suspected militant hideout in Fallujah late on Monday as Iraq's caretaker government put the final touches on emergency security measures.
The attack occurred at 16:15 when US warplanes dropped six bombs "against a Mujahideen safe house," said a US military spokesperson.
It is the deadliest single incident since the US-led coalition handed official power to a caretaker government on June 28.
Hospital sources said at least 12 people were killed and five injured in the attack on the house in the Shuhada neighbourhood of the Sunni Muslim bastion of Fallujah, west of Baghdad.
"I saw eight bodies pulled out," said volunteer Amer Hassan as he lifted debris frantically and dozens searched for people buried in the wreckage.
"I saw at least three people were injured."
The attack is the fifth such raid over the past two weeks in Fallujah, where previous air strikes targeted suspected safe houses of al-Qaeda-linked militant Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
In a bid to tackle hotbeds like Fallujah, national security advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie said that emergency security measures will be unveiled by week's end and include the right to slap down curfews and arrest suspects more easily.
The measures, intended to crush a 14-month insurgency, will include curfews, restrictions on movement and "pre-emptive arrests," allowing police to detain people on strong suspicions that they were involved in misdeeds, Rubaie said.
It was not clear whether such arrests would require a warrant.
- AFP