Iraqis look over damage caused by a US raid into Fallujah

FALLUJAH, August 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – US forces have killed up to 13 Iraqis and wounded scores in a fresh raid into the restive Iraqi town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded outside a police station in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul Sunday morning, August 1, killing at least five people and injuring up to 34 others.

“We have 13 killed and 13 wounded,” doctor Bilal Jassem at Fallujah's main hospital told Agence France-Presse (AFP), about the Fallujah raid which took part Saturday night, July 31.

The same toll was given by Lieutenant Walid Mohammad of the Iraqi police.

The US military had earlier said in a statement that it targeted “insurgents” in Fallujah with artillery and air fire after they attacked a marine position in the city with mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms.

Marines first responded with tanks and artillery fire, it said, adding that there were no marine casualties and “no information about any insurgent losses”.

Residents said they heard loud explosions that appeared to come from the Shuhada neighborhood in the south of the city, targeted by previous US air strikes.

"I heard a very powerful explosion around 10:30 pm (1830 GMT) coming from the Shuhada neighborhood," an unnamed resident told AFP.

The US military has carried out at least seven air strikes over the past month on Fallujah. Reports contradict about the targets of the raids.

The US military insists the raids target suspected hideouts of loyalists of alleged Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi. Iraqis and hospital sources, however, say the raids target Iraqi houses and most victims are usually women and children. Most of the raids hit targets in southern Fallujah.

Acting on tips from Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, US occupation troops in Iraq dropped on July 5 two tons of bombs on Fallujah, killing at least 13 people.

At least 700 Iraqis, mostly women and children, were killed and 1500 others injured when the US occupation forces imposed a tight siege on the city and intensified air strikes on its densely-populated areas.

Mosul Car Bomb

A file photo of Baqubah car bomb

On Sunday, a fresh car bomb devastated a police station in Mosul, killing at least five people, including three policemen, and injuring up to 50 others.

The car detonated in an eastern district of the city, destroying parts of the police station, houses, police cars and a dozen civilian vehicles, Reuters news agency reported, citing police sources.

The dead were police and the wounded were a mix of police and civilians, they said.

Iraqi police stations have been a prime target for car bombs over the past year.

On Wednesday, July 28, 70 people were killed and more than 50 wounded in a car bomb attack near a police recruiting center in Baquba, north of Baghdad.

On July 14, a car bomb killed at least 10 people near the heavily-guarded Green Zone in Baghdad.

Iraqi scholars had ruled such indiscriminate attacks were strictly prohibited in Islam, stressing, in the meantime, the legitimacy of the unabated resistance operations against the US-led occupation troops.