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US punds falluja braced for allout offensive Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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U.S. Pounds Rebel Iraqi City, Aid Group Quits
Thu Nov 4, 2004 11:31 AM ET
By Fadel al-Badrani
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. artillery shelled Falluja on Thursday after overnight air and tank attacks killed five people in Iraq's most rebellious city, braced for an all-out offensive now the U.S. presidential election is over.
Underlining a rapid deterioration in security in Iraq, one of the few remaining international aid groups said it was quitting the country because of the "extreme risk" to aid workers.
"It has become impossible...to guarantee an acceptable level of security for our staff, be they foreign or Iraqi," Medecins sans Frontieres general director Gorik Ooms said in Belgium.
Another major aid group, Care International, also ceased its operations last month after the British-Iraqi woman running them was kidnapped. She is still being held by an unnamed group.
Iraqi's government and its U.S. backers are battling to capture rebel-held cities such as Falluja and Ramadi and pacify the country to prepare for elections due in January.
But they face a mounting insurgency and kidnappings aimed at driving out U.S.-led forces and foreign workers.
The U.S. military said two air raids hit Falluja after midnight, destroying "fighting barricades" prepared by rebels in the northeast and southeast of the Sunni Muslim city.
The strikes followed what witnesses called an intense half- hour bombardment of eastern and northwestern areas by AC-130 planes and tanks that shook the city late on Wednesday night.
They said the attacks were the heaviest for several weeks. Hospital doctor Ahmed Mohammed said five people had been killed, including a woman and a child. All had been in a car hit in an air raid while trying to escape the violence.
ARTILLERY STRIKES
U.S. artillery was back in action during the day, said a Reuters reporter with Marines near Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad. A woman was seriously wounded and a teenage girl lost a leg in earlier air strikes on Wednesday, hospital staff said.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, now in Europe, has not publicly given the go-ahead for the storming of Falluja and Ramadi, but the Marines say they only need the order from him and newly re-elected President Bush.
Shi'ites in the slums of Baghdad's Sadr City, where anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has a strong following, said Bush must now keep his pledges to reconstruct Iraq and hold elections.
"It is Bush who destroyed this country and our city and he is obliged to rebuild them," said resident Qassem al-Kaabi.
Sadr, whose militia staged two uprisings this year, has recently moved toward joining the political process, ordering his Mehdi Army fighters to hand in their weapons in Sadr City.
People in Falluja said the prospect of four more years of Bush depressed them and one man, Sattar Ibrahim, 30, said his family had hoped challenger John Kerry would win because they believed he would have improved chances for peace.
"Choosing Bush creates a crisis for Iraqis and especially for Falluja because we believe he will continue his policy against our country and our city," said Mohammed Ali.
"His policy is based on violence and hatred against Muslims and Arabs," the 20-year-old student added. A car bomb went off in the town of Iskandariya, 30 miles south of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
He had no immediate word on casualties.
Militants in Iraq issued a videotape of three Jordanian truck drivers pleading with their government to warn its nationals against working with U.S.-led forces in the country.
"We will not have mercy on anyone. We will strike with an iron fist whoever deals with the occupation," one of three masked gunmen said on the videotape released to Reuters.
It showed the drivers sitting in front of the gunmen under a black banner that reads Army of Islam Counter Attack Brigades. The tape showed close-ups of their passports. It was not clear if they were among four Jordanian drivers kidnapped on Tuesday.
Militants have seized scores of foreigners since April. Many have been freed. More than 35 have been killed, some beheaded.
There was no word on whether the captors of Care's Iraq chief, Margaret Hassan, had carried out a threat made on Tuesday to hand her to a group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi within 48 hours unless British troops quit Iraq.
Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for hostage beheadings and some of Iraq's bloodiest suicide attacks.
Two Americans, one of Lebanese origin, a Nepali and a Filipino are among foreigners seized in Iraq this week.
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