US raids kill Falluja family of 6
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-10-21 10:05

Overnight U.S. air strikes aimed at fighters loyal to a self-declared al Qaeda ally have killed a family of six in the rebel-held Iraqi town of Falluja, witnesses say.

Reuters television footage on Wednesday showed men chanting "There is no god but Allah!" as they carried the body of the father, wrapped in a blue blanket, through the rubble of the razed family home.

"Is this the gift that (interim 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."

The U.S. military says its almost nightly strikes are carefully targeted at the fighters of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who it says is holed up in the town, about 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad.

But residents say they know nothing of Zarqawi -- some even doubt his existence -- and that the U.S. raids kill civilians and destroy homes.

The U.S. military has made no statement on the overnight air strikes but said raids later on Wednesday destroyed a militant command and control post.

The third U.S. soldier to face court martial over the abuse of prisoners in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, a scandal that sparked worldwide outrage, pleaded guilty to abusing prisoners, including forcing three to masturbate.

Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick is expected to be sentenced on Thursday in the court martial at a military base in Baghdad.

BLAIR SEES MORE VIOLENCE

Allawi has warned Falluja's residents to hand over Zarqawi's followers or face military action. He has said he remains open to talks, but Western diplomats in Baghdad say an offensive against the town of 300,000 is becoming increasingly likely.

Allawi and his U.S.-backed administration are struggling to restore order to allow reconstruction of a country ravaged by years of war and U.N. sanctions and to allow the first democratic elections in decades to go ahead on time in January.

But a bloody insurgency and a wave of kidnappings and suicide bombings have cast doubt over the timing of the poll.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair told parliament he expected an upsurge of violence in Iraq ahead of the elections.

"We are about to enter a period of increased activity. This has nothing to do with American (presidential) elections. It has everything to do, however, with the Iraqi elections," he said.

Blair said he had not yet decided on a U.S. request to shift British troops to more dangerous parts of the country to free up U.S. forces for other action.

Some accuse him of having already agreed to in order to help President George W. Bush before the November 2 U.S. presidential election, in which Iraq has been a major issue.

One of the largest aid agencies in the world, Care International, said on Wednesday it might quit Iraq after its British-Iraqi country manager was kidnapped in Baghdad.

Hours after she was abducted on Tuesday, Care's Margaret 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.

Scores of foreigners, from aid workers and engineers to fuel tanker drivers, have been kidnapped since April and at least 35 have been killed, several of them beheaded.

Hassan is the eighth foreign woman to be abducted. All the others have eventually been released unharmed.

Most international aid agencies withdrew their foreign staff after two Italian women aid workers were kidnapped in Baghdad last month and held for three weeks before being freed.

A 15-year-old boy was killed in shooting on Tuesday near the town of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, after two roadside bombs exploded near a U.S.-police convoy. The bombs wounded two Americans and four Iraqi police, police said.

In Baquba, gunmen killed an Iraqi building contractor working for U.S. forces early on Wednesday, his father said.

An adviser to interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's political party was killed in a drive-by shooting in the capital, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

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