Official: Fallujah strike just missed al-Zarqawi
Explosions, mortar attacks rock Baghdad
 |
|
|
|
|
VIDEO |
Insurgents stage wave of attacks in Iraq.
With one week until the handover of power, some questions
remain.
Iraq's interim prime minister receives a public death
threat.
|
|
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A coalition
strike Friday in Fallujah might have come close to killing Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born Islamic militant believed to
have ties to al Qaeda, a senior Defense Department official
said.
The official said U.S. warplanes targeted a suspected safe
house.
As they began to drop 500-pound bombs on the house, a convoy of
cars pulled up to the home. A man got out of a car as the bombs
fell and was thrown to the ground by a blast. According to the
official, he was hustled back into the car, clearly alive, and
driven away.
The official said al-Zarqawi is thought to be the only person in
that network of terrorist insurgents who travels with such a large
security detail.
The man they saw fall to the ground "wasn't wearing a name tag,"
but they believe it may have been al-Zarqawi.
The strike killed 20 to 25 people, a senior coalition official
said.
It was the third such U.S. airstrike in a week. On Saturday and
Tuesday, so-called safe houses in Fallujah allegedly linked to the
al-Zarqawi network were targeted by U.S. forces, and about 38
people were killed.
There is fresh intelligence that al-Zarqawi uses Fallujah as a
base of operations, the official said.
The official said there were "eyes on the target" while the
airstrike was conducted. That could mean an unmanned Predator drone
aircraft was flying overhead, observing the convoy.
Coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said the target was
"based on confirmations of actionable intelligence provided by both
Iraqi and coalition intelligence sources."
U.S. officials say al-Zarqawi has close ties to al Qaeda leader
Osama bin Laden.
They also blame him for the videotaped beheading of American
businessman Nicholas Berg in May, and a group linked to him claimed
responsibility for beheading South Korean citizen Kim Sun-il this
week.
Meanwhile, two mortar attacks and two explosions pierced the
night in Baghdad late Friday and early Saturday, a coalition
military official said.
No injuries or major damage were reported, according to
coalition spokesman Capt. Patrick Swan.
At about 9 p.m. Friday, an improvised explosive device blew up
in eastern Baghdad, Swan said.
Mortar rounds were fired at a road in western Baghdad near Abu
Ghraib prison about 10 p.m., Swan said. A half-hour later, a bomb
exploded at the home of Iraq's deputy minister of defense. Swan
said Iraqi police immediately secured the area, and the minister
and his family were reported uninjured.
Just after midnight Saturday, six mortar shells struck the road
near the Green Zone, where the U.S.-led coalition is headquartered.
A quick-reaction force responded to the scene.
Earlier Friday, a police officer died and another was wounded
when a roadside bomb exploded near a police car in western
Baghdad.
Iraq tightened security ahead of next week's handover of
sovereignty from the U.S.-led coalition to the Iraqi interim
government, and two top Iraqi ministers vowed to stand firm against
the escalating insurgency.
Fighting continued in Fallujah on Friday. At least seven Iraqis
were killed and about 54 others were wounded, according to a Health
Ministry official.
Video from the city, shot Friday morning, showed rising smoke as
the sound of small-arms fire and explosions could be heard. Heavily
armed masked insurgents -- some brandishing rocket launchers --
patrolled the streets, aiming their weapons at unseen targets.
More violence could mean more troops
In his confirmation hearing before the Senate on Thursday, Gen.
George Casey -- who will soon take over as the commander of
coalition forces -- said U.S. Central Command is working on
contingency planning in case increased violence persists in Iraq
after the handover.
"That is CentCom doing some prudent planning in the event the
security situation changes," he said. "But it is not a request for
forces or even an informal request for forces."
As many as 15,000 troops could be deployed to Iraq if the
insurgency continues to intensify, CNN has learned. About 140,000
U.S. troops are in Iraq.
At least 96 people -- 93 Iraqis and three U.S. troops -- were
killed in seemingly coordinated insurgent attacks in five Iraqi
cities Thursday. Iraqi police and health officials said 331 people
were wounded in the attacks.
Hours after the strikes, the military wing of the Unification
and Jihad, a group linked to al-Zarqawi, issued a statement on a
Web site that claimed responsibility for attacking five police
stations in Mosul, two locations in Baqubah, one in Ramadi and
another in Baghdad. (
Map)
Other developments
