[News] Fierce fighting in Falluja
News at freedomarchives.org
News at freedomarchives.org
Wed Apr 7 11:28:41 EDT 2004
Fierce fighting in Falluja
by
Wednesday 07 April 2004 7:51 AM GMT
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Fierce street battles are raging in Falluja between resistance fighters
defending the town and US occupation forces, who are launching missile
attacks in and around residential areas.
Hospital sources said at least 52 Iraqis were killed and 90 injured in
attacks on the besieged town of Falluja on Wednesday, said Aljazeera
correspondent in Falluja, Ahmad Mansur.
"Iraqi medic Rafi al-Isawai said the number of casualities is expected to
double," he added.
Another 53 Iraqis died in attacks overnight in the besieged town which
American forces sealed off on Sunday. "More than 200 Iraqis, including
women children, were injured in the past 24 hours," said Mansur.
Twenty-five of those killed were from one family.
'Getting worse'
"The situation is getting worse," said Mansur. "An ambulance carrying
casualties was attacked on its way to the medical centre. The American
forces closed the road leading to the city's hospital and everybody walking
in the streets of Falluja is now becoming a target."
The US forces have evacuated the factories in the industrial area of the
city and asked the workers to leave and not come back until a day or two,
he added.
The correspondent also confirmed that Abd al-Aziz al-Samari mosque, where
the office of the Association of Muslim Clerics is, was attacked and among
the casualties were a family sitting in a car parked behind the mosque.
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A number of children were among
the casualties in Falluja
"The American troops are still in the outside section of Falluja and they
have not reached the centre of the city yet," said Mansur.
Earlier, speaking live from a rooftop in the tense town, Mansur said the
hospital is struggling to cope with the rising casualties.
"They are attacking residential neighbourhoods," he said as US warplanes
swooped over the area and fired rockets. Intense gunfire could be heard
from the streets.
"The residents of Falluja are asking where is the (US-appointed) Iraqi
Governing Council," said an obviously shaken Mansur. "They are asking why
the Iraqis are not protecting them."
Plea for help
"Residents of Falluja call on the Arab world to intervene and lift the
siege on this town of 300,000. They ask where are the Arab leaders in this
time?" he said before throwing himself to the ground as a plane flew overhead.
Falluja has come under fierce US attack in the past three days as
occupation forces sealed off the town, a centre for anti-occupation
activity, in an effort to crush the resistance.
US marines tried for a third time to take control of the town but were
forced to retreat.
The Aljazeera crew, including cameramen Layf Muftaq and Hasan Walid, sound
engineer Sayf al-Din and correspondent Hamid Hadid, are the only media
personnel inside the town.
US forces besieged the town after last week's ambush in which four security
guards were killed and their bodies mutilated and dragged through the
streets by Iraqi mobs.
Aljazeera
By
You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A73529F1-1554-4C68-8774-BA478D565B02.htm
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