U.S. Aircraft Strike Insurgents in Falluja; Kidnappers Want Iraqi Women Out of Jail
By SABRINA TAVERNISE

Published: September 11, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 10 - American aircraft fired on insurgent positions in the city of Falluja for a fourth straight day on Friday, as the United States military tried to reassert control over the unruly city, which lies at the heart of the insurgency.

Meanwhile, Islamic militants holding two Italian aid workers and two Iraqis hostage demanded that Muslim female prisoners in Iraq be released within 24 hours or "Italian people will never discover the fate of the Italian women hostages," Agence France-Presse reported, citing a statement on a Web site used by Islamic groups.

At a briefing earlier this week, Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the head of the American detention system in Iraq, said only two Iraqi women were being held in American custody. Both were members of the government of Saddam Hussein.

The previously unknown group, which calls itself the Zawahiri Loyalists, apparently after Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian doctor who is believed to be the second in command of Al Qaeda, said it would "give a little information about the Italian female hostages," if its demand was met. But Iraq's interim president, Ghazi al-Yawar, expressed some doubts about the credibility of the group's claim, according to a statement from the office of the Italian prime minister, who met with Mr. Yawar in Rome today, The Associated Press reported.

A potential link surfaced between this week's kidnapping of the Italians - Simona Pari and Simona Torretta - and Islamic militants in Falluja, a city 35 miles west of Baghdad that has been out of the control of American and Iraqi government forces for months. Falluja residents said they saw leaflets posted on walls around the city offering information about the Italians, who were taken from their office in Baghdad by more than a dozen armed men on Tuesday.

American marines battled militants in Falluja this spring, but were ordered to withdraw before they could control the city. The Falluja Brigade, an American-assembled Iraqi force that was supposed to fill the security vacuum, has since collapsed. Now, Islamic militants have imposed a rigid, religious regime, complete with courts that administer justice based on teachings from the Koran, much like the former Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Friday's strikes in Falluja began at 11:50 a.m., military officials said, and were aimed at storehouses of equipment that they said was to be used in fighting American forces. "Insurgents within the city have begun to militarize buildings and restrict daily activity in the city," the American military said in a statement. Military officials said no one was killed in the attacks, although The Associated Press quoted Falluja hospital officials as saying one person died.

In airstrikes this week, American commanders say they have been bombing hideouts of foreign Arab fighters, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant believed by American officials to be Al Qaeda's most senior leader in Iraq.

An unconfirmed report on Friday night indicated that the American bombing campaign might have killed a much-wanted guerrilla leader. Turkish television broadcast a video from militants saying a suspected leader of a Turkish Qaeda cell had been killed by American airstrikes in Iraq, The Associated Press reported from Ankara.

The network said the video was prepared by the Unity and Jihad militant group, which is believed to be run by Mr. Zarqawi, and recently claimed responsibility for the execution of three Turkish hostages in Iraq. In the video, originally obtained by a Turkish news agency in Baghdad, a man was heard saying that the militant, Habib Akdas, was killed in a bombing raid this week in Anbar, a province that includes Falluja.

Mr. Akdas was identified in an indictment as one of the leaders in a series of bombings that killed 62 people in Turkey in November.

In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded just outside a Seventh-day Adventist Church late on Friday, shattering the windows and igniting a fire near a rear entrance to the building. There were no injuries. Witnesses said a driver parked a car near the church and sped away in another vehicle. The incident recalled the bombing of four Christian churches in August.

Earlier on Friday, two Lebanese citizens were shot and killed in their home by armed men dressed as police officers, said Sabah Khadim, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. Mr. Khadim identified the two, a husband and wife, as Karim Khoury and Evlyn Abu-Daib.

In other violence, three Shiite worshipers were killed, apparently by Iraqi forces, as they marched in a large crowd toward a shrine on a religious holiday in Baghdad. Witnesses said Iraqi Army and Iraqi National Guard forces opened fire at about 2 p.m., just as the crowd began to cross a bridge to the Kadhimiya neighborhood. Five people were wounded, said Dr. Musab al-Athami, a doctor at Noman Hospital, where the injured were being treated.

"We were shocked," said Muhammad Jasim, 17, who was standing at the bedside of his cousin, whose shoulder was torn from a bullet during the shooting. "We are just pilgrims. We were not armed."

Mr. Khadim said he had no information about the alleged shooting. The Ministry of Defense, responsible for army and national guard forces, could not be reached for comment.

American military operations in the northern city of Tal Afar on Thursday, which killed more than 50 fighters, according to American commanders, drew criticism from a Shiite leader and from the Turkish government on Friday. Local hospital officials said Thursday that most of those killed had been civilians.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a leading Shiite cleric here, criticized the American strikes in Tal Afar, near the Syrian border, saying Americans had caused "catastrophes," The Associated Press reported. Turkey also called on the American military to end the attacks, saying they had caused casualties among ethnic Turks in the area, The Associated Press said. [

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded outside a Baghdad church late on Friday, shattering stained glass windows but harming no one, the church priest said.

"Nobody was injured, thank God," Oweda Wahba told Reuters. "It was a cowardly act."

The twisted and charred wreckage of the car lay outside the Sabbatarian Adventist Church in central Baghdad. Services due to be held on Saturday morning had been canceled, Wahba added.

Bombs exploded at four Baghdad churches and one in the northern city of Mosul during Sunday services on Aug. 1.


http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6209232

Photos of yesterdays event

Outside of our Church in Baghdad