The good news:U.S. Bombings Kill 100 Suspects in Iraq Sunday, 26-Sep-2004 Story from AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A month of U.S. airstrikes on rebel-held Fallujah has killed more than 100 suspected insurgents, taking a heavy toll on the terror network of Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, senior U.S. military officials said on Sunday.
The strikes have stopped attacks elsewhere in Iraq while setting off deadly feuds among insurgent groups holed up in the city west of Baghdad, said Air Force Brig. Gen. Erv Lessel, deputy operations director for U.S.-led forces here.
"We're confident that, through these airstrikes, we have been able to thwart many large-scale attacks and suicide bombings that were in the planning process," Lessel said in a briefing with reporters. "We've gotten some of his associates and emerging leadership in his organization."
The airstrikes have not, however, halted a record number of car bombings this month, mainly in Baghdad and nearby Sunni Muslim majority cities. With a twin car bombing outside an Iraqi national guard base that wounded U.S. and Iraqi troops Sunday, at least 34 suicide car bombings have been launched in September.
U.S. and Iraqi officials regularly blame al-Zarqawi's network for the deadliest of the bombings plaguing Iraq. The Jordanian is also thought to lead the Tawhid and Jihad group that has claimed responsibility for abducting dozens of the 140 foreigners kidnapped in Iraq, and killing many of them, including two American civil engineers beheaded last week.
For the past for weeks, U.S. airstrikes have pounded suspected insurgent safe houses in Fallujah on an almost nightly basis.
On Saturday night, U.S. warplanes, tanks and artillery leveled two buildings and a cluster of rebel-built fortifications in Fallujah. The U.S. military believed the buildings were the site of a meeting of members of al-Zarqawi's group. Doctors said 16 people were killed and 37 wounded in the attack.
One U.S. official described television pictures that showed a child's body being removed from the rubble Saturday as "propaganda that the Zarqawi network is putting out."
Lessel and Army Brig. Gen. John DeFreitas, deputy director for military intelligence, didn't rule out that civilians were being killed in the raids. But they said they suspect Fallujah-based hospital officials were overstating claims that women and children were being killed in each bombing.
"We've seen reports from the hospital about dead and wounded within 45 minutes of airstrikes," Lessel said, which, he said, was too soon for victims to have been transported from the site of the attack. He also said wounded people shown on television could not have survived the airstrikes.
"You have to look at how much you trust the source of reporting about civilian casualties," Lessel said. "Many come out of Fallujah, where we have evidence of foreign fighter presence in the hospital."
U.S. warplanes drop precision-guided munitions that can destroy a target house and leave neighboring homes intact, but civilians are killed if they are inside or too close to the buildings hit, Lessel said.
"We can't with 100 percent certainty say that we haven't killed any civilians," the general said. "We have canceled strikes, though, because our intelligence indicates the presence of civilians."
The success of the attacks can be seen in reports of infighting among members of al-Zarqawi's network and allies in criminal gangs and other groups inside the city, the officials said, noting that guerrilla leaders were executing those suspected of giving intelligence to the Americans.
"There's a trust issue," DeFreitas said. "Some members on the inside are providing information and are subsequently being executed."
A recent video CD released by Fallujah-based insurgents graphically illustrates one such killing, while giving insights into U.S. intelligence operations in the city.
The CD shows an Egyptian man confessing to placing tiny transmitters near buildings used by insurgents. The man held one of the matchbook-sized chips in his hand, and said the U.S. military gave others like it to him, to pinpoint locations of sites to bomb.
After the confession, masked men standing behind the Egyptian shoved him to the ground and brutally beheaded him.
Abu Thar said U.S. spies were a major problem for fighters in Fallujah.
"In every war there are spies who are ready to sell themselves to the occupiers," he said. "Those agents might be your friend or your neighbor and they provide the Americans with information in return for money." |
