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Occupation tanks poised to enter Falluja
US tanks have taken up positions around Falluja and appear to be preparing to enter the Iraqi city.
At least 15 tanks were seen on Wednesday taking up temporary stations one kilometre past the US checkpoint that leads into the city.
Iraqi officials in Falluja confirmed that American troops had asked local authorities to provide them with safe passage through the city.
A Sunni Muslim bastion, Falluja was rocked to its foundations in April by some of the heaviest fighting in Iraq since the US-led invasion began last year.
The last US troop patrol in the city was on 10 May, shortly after they struck an agreement with resistance fighters to end a weeks-long siege and allow Iraqi police and ex-army figures to maintain security.
The tank patrol follows an attack overnight on an Iraqi general charged with imposing security in Falluja.
The raid killed 12 members of General Muhammad Latif's militia and wounded 10 more, though Latif is not believed to have been injured.
Pipeline targeted
Earlier, saboteurs ruptured an oil pipeline linking the Kirkuk oil fields with Iraq's largest fuel refinery at Baiji, 200km north of Baghdad.
Iraqi officials confirmed that the night attack on Wednesday forced a 400-megawatt power station near the refinery to shut down.
Firemen were still battling on Wednesday to put out the fire on the line.
On Sunday, the main oil export artery from the north was also ruptured with sound grenades - causing a sharp rise in world oil prices.
Northern Iraq's pipeline, which takes crude from the Kirkuk oilfields to Turkey's Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan, has not been at full capacity use since the US-led invasion last year.
Convoy ambushed
Elsewhere, resistance fighters raked a US military convoy on Wednesday. One of the trucks exploded, an Iraqi witness and a US soldier said.
The attack was launched on a road in the northwestern Baghdad neighbourhood of al-Khadra.
A crowd gathered and cursed the firemen dousing the blaze and demanding they let it burn.
"One soldier ran away from the truck and got into another vehicle," said Burhan al-Din Husain, who was getting his car fixed at a mechanics shop when the speeding car shot up the convoy.
He said it happened between 10:30 and 11:00 GMT. A US soldier said the truck caught fire when a a Molotov cocktail was thrown at it.
The stretch of road is the site of frequent attacks on occupation troops.
AFP
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E8E5D69B-FF87-4E8C-9CF8-637197702743.htm
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Some 15 tanks are deployed on road about one kilometre east of US checkpoint on border of Fallujah.
FALLUJAH, Iraq - US tanks gathered outside Fallujah in western Iraq on Wednesday and appeared to be preparing to enter the flashpoint city, an AFP correspondent reported.
Some 15 tanks were deployed on a road about one kilometre (less than a mile) east of a US checkpoint on the border of the city, which lies 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Baghdad.
Iraqis living in Fallujah said American troops had asked the local authorities to provide them with a safe passage through the city, the correspondent said.
Elsewhere, a mortar attack on an Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC) and army base by Saqlawi, north of Fallujah, left seven wounded, according to a witness.
"We were nearby when the mortar hit an army and ICDC base. We rushed to the spot and helped evacuate seven wounded," said Ali Abdullah, 27.
Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim bastion, was rocked in April by some of the heaviest fighting in Iraq since the US-led invasion last year after rebels brutally murdered four US security contractors.
It has been relatively calm since the end of April when US troops handed over patrols to Iraqi police and a newly-formed Fallujah Brigade, an ad-hoc force of veterans of the disbanded Iraqi army.
The last known US marine patrol through the city was on May 10.
But hardline Sunni clerics and gunmen have overwhelmed the Iraqi security forces inside the city and instituted their own harsh brand of Islamic law that includes public floggings for alcohol merchants.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=10233
FALLUJAH, Iraq - US tanks gathered outside Fallujah in western Iraq on Wednesday and appeared to be preparing to enter the flashpoint city, an AFP correspondent reported.
Some 15 tanks were deployed on a road about one kilometre (less than a mile) east of a US checkpoint on the border of the city, which lies 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Baghdad.
Iraqis living in Fallujah said American troops had asked the local authorities to provide them with a safe passage through the city, the correspondent said.
Elsewhere, a mortar attack on an Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC) and army base by Saqlawi, north of Fallujah, left seven wounded, according to a witness.
"We were nearby when the mortar hit an army and ICDC base. We rushed to the spot and helped evacuate seven wounded," said Ali Abdullah, 27.
Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim bastion, was rocked in April by some of the heaviest fighting in Iraq since the US-led invasion last year after rebels brutally murdered four US security contractors.
It has been relatively calm since the end of April when US troops handed over patrols to Iraqi police and a newly-formed Fallujah Brigade, an ad-hoc force of veterans of the disbanded Iraqi army.
The last known US marine patrol through the city was on May 10.
But hardline Sunni clerics and gunmen have overwhelmed the Iraqi security forces inside the city and instituted their own harsh brand of Islamic law that includes public floggings for alcohol merchants.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=10233
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