10/3/2004 10:20:00 PM GMT
U.S. forces launched a series of strikes in Fallujah , killing 15 Iraqis and wounding 12 others, the city hospital said Sunday.
The U.S. occupation forces confirmed one operation at about 1 a.m. Sunday that severely destroyed a building on the outskirts of Fallujah.
The military claimed in a statement that; "forty-five minutes of secondary explosions indicated the building was being used as a huge weapons/ammunition cache."
The statement added that "this strike reduced the capability of the Zarqawi network and increased safety and security throughout Iraq,"
Dr. Dhia Ahmed of Fallujah General Hospital said that they received two corpses and treated 10 people injured in air raids that targeted the al-Jolan, Shuhada, al-Askari and Jubail neighborhoods in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.
Two more people, a man and his wife, were killed and two injured when a tank opened fire at a house in the city's southern suburbs, Dr. Rafe al-Issawi said.
On the other hand, U.S. army officials claimed that; "throughout the operation, multiple measures were employed to ensure no innocent civilians were present when the strikes took place."
Car bomb hits U.S. Convoy
The U.S. military said that a car bomb exploded Saturday near a U.S. Marine convoy east of Fallujah, injuring at least one person.
The attack took place, at 07:30 a.m. near Garma, some 9 miles east of Fallujah, said 1st. Lt. Lyle Gilbert, a Marine spokesman. He added that one member of the convoy was injured, without revealing the nationality of the victim.
Police Lt. Sarmad Ali said U.S. troops opened fire after the attack, injuring one Iraqi civilian. The military declined to comment about that incident.
Sadr City
Meanwhile, a hospital official reported that five Iraqi civilians were injured by U.S. fire in the western Baghdad slum of Sadr City early Sunday.
The al-Sadr Hospital director, Abdel-Jabar Solag, said that the wounded were being treated at his hospital.
The U.S. military didn’t comment immediately about the fighting in Sadr city, which has witnessed daily clashes and strikes.
Roadside bomb in Baqouba
In Baqouba, north of Baghdad, officials reported that a police car was hit by a roadside bomb, wounding one policeman.
The explosion occurred at about 8:30 a.m. in central Baqouba, police Col. Abdel-Salam Saeed said.
A spate of blasts, mortar attacks and shooting sprees targeting national police and possible applicants has killed hundreds of people across the country.