- Title: IRAQ: UNITED STATES ARTILLERY CONTINUES BOMBARDING FALLUJA
- Date: 7th November 2004
- Summary: (U7) FALLUJA, IRAQ ( NOVEMBER 6, 2004) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) 1. WIDE SHOTS OF FALLUJA AND AUDIO OF GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS 3.21 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 22nd November 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: FALLUJA, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA7CS0PRPQMDUIQWBFTIXKK2KRP
- Story Text: U.S. artillery continued bombarding Falluja Saturday
night ahead of major assault on the city.
U.S. forces hit Iraq's rebel stronghold of Falluja
on Saturday night (November 6, 2004) with the fiercest air and
ground bombardment in months, as insurgents struck back
with attacks that killed up to 37 people in Samarra.
The Falluja strikes, before a threatened major assault
on Saddam Hussein loyalists and militants allied to Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, destroyed a hospital, a medical warehouse
and dozens of homes, dazed residents said after a sleepless
night.
There was no immediate word on casualties.
Hospital staff said ambulances had been unable to go
out as the city shook to explosions. Later, they collected
two dead and seven wounded civilians, among them women and
children.
U.S. forces sealed all roads to the city and used
loudspeakers and leaflets in Arabic to tell residents they
would detain any man under 45 trying to enter or leave the
city.
Many residents have already fled the Sunni Muslim city
of 300,000, about 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad.
On Friday U.S. troops urged Falluja residents to leave
the city using leaflets and loudspeakers.
Friday's warning to Falluja residents included an
appeal to hand over "terrorists" to U.S. troops. Shupp said
anywhere between 1,000 and 6,000 rebels were holed up in
the city.
The U.S. military says the assault on Falluja will
succeed where an April one failed because this time it will
be ordered by an Iraqi government and Iraqi forces will be
involved. In April, Iraqi units refused to fight for the
U.S.-led occupation.
With a U.S.-led offensive on Falluja apparently
imminent, rebels hit back with attacks in Samarra, Baghdad
and Ramadi, another rebel-held city.
The deadliest assaults were in Samarra, where a suicide
car bomber rammed into a police station and three car bombs
exploded elsewhere. Insurgents also attacked three other
police stations.
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