U.S. Strike Kills 10 In Fallujah Mosque, Iraqis Vow Revenge
FALLUJAH, Iraq, July 1 (IslamOnline.net &
News Agencies) - Angry residents in Fallujah
vowed revenge Tuesday, July 1, after ten
people were reportedly killed in the main
mosque which, witnesses said, was pounded
by an American helicopter gunship late
Monday, June 30.
According to the American Fox News
channel and the Associated Press (AP), the
death toll of the attack, which was earlier
put at eight, mounted to ten people.
A U.S. helicopter had pounded Al-Hassan
mosque in Fallujah, west of the capital
Baghdad, on Monday night.
Eyewitnesses told Al-Jazeera channel they
saw a U.S. helicopter gunship firing a missile
at the mosque, where a number of
worshippers were listening to a religious
lesson.
"This mosque is where the resistance will effectively start," shouted a
man, as other men around him cheered.
Sheikh Ahmad al-Janabi, a scholar at the mosque, told Agence
France-Presse (AFP) that "targeting the mosque is a provocation to all
Muslims."
"If their (Muslims') mosques are threatened, what would they do?
What do the Americans expect from us? Simply retaliation," the sheikh
told AFP.
Witnesses said a ball of fire ripped through the mosque, destroying
two rooms and gouging a hole in its dome, leaving several people
wounded including the Imam, Sheikh Laith, whose leg was amputated.
Many residents gathered at the
mosque early Tuesday to survey
the damage and many expressed
anger at the sight.
A U.S. military official told AFP
that he could not confirm what
caused the explosions, adding,
"We are waiting for further
information."
The flashpoint town had woken
up to news of another
rocket-propelled grenade (RPG)
attack on the main U.S. military
base located at the government
office at 3:50 am (2350 GMT
Monday), residents told AFP.
There was no word on casualties or damage from the attack, which
they said prompted U.S. troops to return fire and comb areas around
the base.
Two cars passing near the area were stopped by the troops who
detained their passengers, including an eight-year-old boy, witnesses
said.
U.S. forces have imposed an overnight curfew on Fallujah, but
residents are challenging the order.
U.S. forces have recently stepped up their presence in the
conservative Sunni Muslim town known as the "City of Mosques" which
is located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad, carrying
out intensive searches across broad swathes of the region.
On Tuesday, June 24, American occupation forces came under fresh
grenade attack in Fallujah, which is simmering with rage three months
into the U.S. military occupation of Iraq.
An attacker had fired a
rocket-propelled grenade at an
American military convoy
Thursday, June 5, killing one U.S.
soldier and wounding five.
But residents here did not feel
regretful, as they still remember
when 19 innocent civilians were
gunned down by the U.S. forces
during a demonstration for an end
of occupation last April. Since
then, many vowed revenge.
In many ways, the city has
become emblematic of the
complex tangle of problems
facing the U.S.-led occupation.
American patrols come under regular fire from Iraqis armed with
weapons available since Saddam Hussein was toppled under promises
of a better life in the horizon.
This in turn has left the American soldiers edgy and much less friendly
with the Iraqis.
While the U.S. forces say they want to let Iraqis run their own affairs
as soon as possible, they have poured more than 1,000 extra troops in
and around the city in the past few days to try to curb
anti-occupation attacks
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