US Warplanes Kill Family of Six in Falluja

21/10/2004| IslamWeb

US warplanes killed a family of six and at least eight civilians were killed and 11 US soldiers wounded in clashes in Samarra. A witness saw a man and a woman and four children, two boys and two girls, being pulled out of the rubble of a razed home in Falluja. The US military denied a family of six was killed, saying it launched four strikes against safehouses used by Al Zarqawi's fighters. "Intelligence sources indicate a known Zarqawi propagandist is passing false reports to the media," it said in a statement. But Reuters television footage showed men chanting "There is no god but Allah!" as they carried the body of the father of the family of six. "Is this the gift that (interim Iraqi Prime Minister) Iyad Allawi is giving to the people of Falluja?" asked one man, pointing to the small bodies of two of the children lying in the trunk of a car. "Every day they strike Falluja." At least eight civilians were killed and 11 US soldiers wounded in clashes in Samarra, a northern town the US military said it had pacified following an offensive earlier this month. Two car bombs killed a child and also wounded a civilian translator in the centre of the town, the US military said. A police official said eight civilians had been killed and 12 wounded in clashes. Care International, an aid agency working in Iraq on health and water projects, suspended operations after its British-Iraqi manager in Iraq, Margaret Hassan, was abducted and said it might pull out of the country altogether. Hours after she was abducted on Tuesday, Hassan, who has lived in Iraq for 30 years, was shown sitting alone and anxious in a video aired on Al Jazeera television, which said an unnamed group claimed to be holding her. "At the moment we have suspended operations, and we will continue to pull out of the country unless we can resolve this issue," Care International chief Geoffrey Dennis told BBC radio. The US military says its almost nightly strikes on Falluja are carefully targeted at fighters led by Jordanian militant Al Zarqawi, who it says is holed up in the city. But residents say they know nothing of Zarqawi - some even doubt his existence - and that the US raids kill civilians. **PHOTO CAPTION*** An injured man is rushed to a local hospital in the city of Samarra. (AFP)