Iraqis killed, wounded in Falluja air raid

Witnesses from the town said US warplanes carried out the strike around ten in the morning.

They said the victims were crushed under the the rubble after two missile strikes demolished the house on Saturday morning.

Relatives brought 22 bodies for burial at a cemetery after the blast.

Aljazeera's correspondent in Baghdad, Abd Al-Adhim Muhamad, said several Falluja residents told him by phone that US warplanes had hovered over the city and eventually fired two missiles.

A Falluja resident told AFP that US planes bombed a residential area.

"An American plane fired at about 10:30 am (0630 GMT) on our houses," said a resident of the Jbail district of the city.

They said casualties were pulled from the rubble of four houses and taken to hospital.

A US military source would not to comment on the report.

"We approached US occupation authorities: they refused to release immediate comment, but said there will be a press conference this afternoon" Muhamad said.

If confirmed as a US raid, it would be the first operation on the city 50km west of Baghdad since US marines withdrew at the beginning of May after a month of fierce clashes.

A US delegation visited the city last week and signed a "Trust Memorandum".

Outraged population

"At 9:30 a.m., a U.S. plane shot two missiles on this residential area," said the Fallujah police chief, Sabbar al-Janabi, as he surveyed the wreckage. "Scores were killed and injured. This picture speaks for itself."

Rescue teams searched the scene for other victims. At least two houses were destroyed and six others were damaged in the poor residential area.

Slabs of concrete and steel reinforcing bars were upended and twisted skyward in the damage.

Water pooled from a 6-meter (20-foot)-crater in front of one of the destroyed houses, apparently from where one of the missiles struck. One man displayed several Qurans burned in the strikes.

Outraged residents accused the Americans of trying to inflict maximum damaged by firing two strikes _ one first to attack and another to kill the rescuers.

"The number of casualties is so high because after the first missile we jumped to rescue the victims," said Wissam Ali Hamad. "The second missile killed those trying to carry out the rescue."

"Citizens of Falluja are saying, it is a US violation to the truce" Muhamad, Aljazzeera's correspondent said.

Portuguese death

Meanwhile in Basra, in southern Iraq, a roadside bomb blast has killed a Portuguese worker and two Iraqis, Iraqi police said.

Police officer Abdul-Ilaah Mohammed said the bomb was detonated as the Portuguese telecommunications worker's car drove past on a highway west of Basra, flipping it over several times.

Witnesses said the vehicle targeted in the blast was of the type used by security guards protecting Iraq's oil infrastructure.

"The body of a Portuguese man, registered under the name of Roberto Carlos, working for (telecommunications) company Al-Atheer, was brought to Basra hospital after an attack on the road to Zubair," said Ismail Mulla, an official with the emergency services.

An Iraqi policeman assigned to protect oil installations and an oil worker were also killed in the attack, which happened about three kilometres south of Basra at about 9:15 am (0515 GMT), a local police officer said.

The Iraqi driver of the all-terrain vehicle belonging to Al-Atheer, which runs telecommunications services in southern Iraq, was wounded, he said.

Another police officer who did not want to be named, said the driver of another car caught in the blast was also hurt.


Aljazeera + Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/10BAF2F2-8DAA-48C5-8F39-7A58080F0B32.htm