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US Bombing Kills Seven Iraqis on Syrian Border - Al-Jazeera

Posted on: Sunday, 2 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

Text of report by Qatari Al-Jazeera satellite TV on 2 October

We begin this newscast with the statement of the US Army in Iraq that it killed eight gunmen on the first day of the Iron Fist Operation the US troops are waging in the environs of Al-Qa'im, near the Syrian border. A medical source said seven Iraqis, including women and children were killed and others were wounded, when a US helicopter gunship bombed a tractor they were riding in Al-Rummanah village. The source added that an ambulance driver was killed while attempting to evacuate the wounded.

In Kirkuk, northern Iraq, two policemen were killed and a third was wounded in the blast of an explosive charge that targeted an Iraqi police patrol. Meanwhile, gunmen abducted Jabbar Jabr Solagh, brother of the Iraqi interior minister, in Al-Sadr City, eastern Baghdad, yesterday. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said four gunmen intercepted the car of Solagh, who works as the director of the Martyr Al-Sadr Hospital, while he was on his way to his home.

[This report is immediately followed by a telephone interview with "journalist" Falih Abd-al-Karim in Al-Qa'im. Asked how he assesses the situation on the ground, Abd-al-Karim says a US force of about 1,000 soldiers "are shelling houses intermittently." He adds: "However, the US forces are relying heavily on military aircraft and not on ground troops in their intermittent heavy shelling. They bombarded Al-Rummanah area last night and at dawn today. They killed seven civilians, all of whom, and not most of them, were women and children. Others were wounded. They were riding a tractor towards a farm. Through our contacts, and despite the difficulties involved, it has been confirmed to us that there are martyrs under the debris of houses in Al-Rummanah. We were not able to determine the final death toll. We contacted Al-Qa'im Hospital and they confirmed that only two martyrs were brought into the hospital, in view of the difficult, and almost absence of transportation. Warplanes bombarded Sa'dah village again this morning and at noon today. There were human losses. A water project feeding a housing neighbourhood inhabited by about 4,000 people was disrupted." The reporter says the population of the area are "angry at the Iraqi Government, for they feel that it is responsible for preventing them from participating in the political process and from taking part in the referendum on the constitution". The reporter says the population "categorically deny that there are foreigners in Al-Qa'im, at least at present."] [Video shows Iraqi civilians in Al- Qa'im and US helicopter gunships flying over the area]

Source: BBC Monitoring Newsfile

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