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US strike against 'Zarqawi safe house'
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-01 08:42 U.S. forces attacked and destroyed what they said
was a "safe house" belonging to the Jordanian militant Washington views as its
top guerrilla target in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The assault, which witnesses in the restive city of Falluja said wrecked the
house and killed four people, was launched hours before ex-president Saddam
Hussein was due to appear before an Iraqi court on Thursday for formal
arraignment.
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The production area
at Taser International, is shown Wednesday, June 30, 2004, in Scottsdale,
Ariz. US. Taser International Inc. won a $1.8 million contract to provide
stun guns to military personnel _ the company's largest order ever. The
deal announced Wednesday follows a previous smaller order by the U.S. Army
for stun guns and accessories used in Iraq and a $1.5 million order
from a foreign military for more than 3,000 Tasers announced last year.
The vast majority of the company's sales have been to local law
enforcement agencies. [AP]
| He was formally handed over to
Iraqi custody by U.S. forces on Wednesday, making a first appearance before a
judge since his capture in December. He is accused over the death and torture of
thousands during a 35-year rule, and could hang if found guilty.
U.S. forces made it clear Monday's formal handover of power to an Iraqi
government would not weaken their pursuit of Saddam loyalists and foreign
insurgents they believe are using Falluja as a base.
"On June the 30th, multinational forces conducted another strike on a known
Zarqawi network safehouse in southwest Falluja based on multi-confirmations of
Iraqi and multinational intelligence," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy
director of operations for the U.S. military, said in a statement.
There was no indication Zarqawi, who has claimed responsibility for several
suicide attacks and the beheadings of an American and a South Korean hostage,
was in the building.
Witnesses said four bodies had been pulled from the house in a southwest
suburb of the city after a warplane fired a missile at it. Residents were
looking for survivors.
"The house was completely destroyed," said one resident in Falluja, a
potential hotbed of resistance to the new government and to coalition forces
backing it.
CLASHES
The U.S. statement said "whenever and wherever we find elements of the
Zarqawi network we will attack them."
The suppression of insurgency is the biggest challenge facing the new
government, leaning as it will on 160,000 coalition forces remaining in the
country.
Washington is offering a $10 million reward for the capture of Zarqawi, an
Islamist militant aligned to al Qaeda.
Witnesses on the eastern edge of Falluja said clashes involving small arms
and mortar fire had broken out between U.S. forces and guerrillas, but there
were no reports of casualties.
The U.S. statement did not mention the clashes.
Saddam Hussein and 11 of his lieutenants were turned over to face Iraqi
justice nearly 15 months after U.S.-led forces overthrew him. They will stay
under U.S. military guard.
Iraq's President Ghazi al-Yawar was quoted as saying the death penalty,
suspended during the U.S.-led occupation, would be reinstated.
Saddam will be charged with crimes against humanity for a 1988 gas massacre
of Kurds, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, according
to Chalabi.
Kuwait called for Saddam to be sentenced to death over Baghdad's seven-month
occupation of the Gulf state in 1990-91.
Allawi's government wants to show Iraqis the occupation is really over,
despite the presence of U.S.-led foreign troops, and to prove it can curb
violence.
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