[ See the IraqBodyCount.net database for data on Iraqi deaths by U.S. airstrikes. Many children have been killed by so-called “precision strikes” targeting the elusive Zarqawi. –BL ]
‘US war planes wipe out family of six’
20 Oct. 2004 | Agence France-Presse
BAGHDAD- US warplanes have struck targets in rebel-held Fallujah.
Two “terrorist safe houses” linked to Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, Iraq’s most wanted man, were destroyed, the US military said, although residents claimed a family of six were wiped out in the air strike.
“The house was completely destroyed by a missile dropped from an American plane and we have pulled from the rubble the bodies of four children, a woman and a man,” said Bassem Mohammed, a resident of the western city of Fallujah.
It was impossible to obtain independent confirmation.
Determined to regain control of the no-go zone, more than 1,000 joint forces have encircled the city for the past week.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi last week ordered Fallujah residents to surrender Zarqawi or face invasion.
Humanitarian agencies have raised concerns for the welfare of residents in the Sunni Muslim bastion amid near nightly US air raids.
