US Warplanes Bomb Ramadi

16/09/2005| IslamWeb

US warplanes have bombed targets in the Iraqi town of Ramadi while US forces have clashed with fighters in the city, Aljazeera reported.

US jets struck al-Bufarraj and Sufiya areas in Ramadi city at around 7.30am on Thursday, wounding an unknown number of civilians, independent Iraqi journalist Muhammad Hassan said.

Fierce clashes erupted following the raids in the eastern gate of Ramadi, near the US military headquarters and in the big mosque area in the city centre.

A US military base, nicknamed "the southern palace", in western Ramadi, also came under mortar attack, Hassan told Aljazeera.

Hassan described the city as almost deserted, with only fighters deployed in some areas and US helicopters and warplanes hovering overhead.

Doctors in Ramadi hospital called for blood donations after a number of wounded Iraqi civilians were brought in, Hassan said.

Some mosques also called on citizens through loudspeakers to donate blood for the injured.

Thursday's strikes came two days after US aircraft repeatedly struck fighter targets in the Iraqi town of Karabila, near the Syrian border, as part of an Iraqi-US operation to flush out fighters from various Iraqi towns.

PHOTO CAPTION

Masked Iraqis carry weapons in the center of Ramadi, 115 kilometers west of Baghdad, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2005. (AP)