The U.S. military launched another airstrike early Thursday against a suspected hideout of al Qaeda activist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Fallujah. It was the fourth attack in a month on targets in the city.
Fallujah residents contacted by telephone said U.S. jets fired missiles at a house on the eastern side of the city. Dr. Loai Ali of the Fallujah General Hospital said four people were killed and 10 injured, The AP reported.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for the US-led occupation force, said the attack was launched after "multiple confirmations of Iraqi and multinational intelligence."
"This operation employed precision weapons to attack the safe house and underscores the resolve of multinational and Iraqi security forces to jointly destroy terrorist networks within Iraq," Kimmitt stated.
U.S. authorities Wednesday increased to $25 million the reward for information leading to the arrest of al-Zarqawi, more than doubling the previous offering of $10 million.
Meanwhile, police slapped a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew on the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Wednesday, a day after discovering about 150 pounds of explosives in a white BMW, police Brig. Ghalib al-Jazaari said.
One Libyan man who allegedly entered Iraq from Syria to fight U.S. forces was detained in connection with the incident, al-Jazaari said.
Separately, a US soldier was killed and four others were injured during a traffic accident near the Kuwait border on Wednesday night, the U.S. military said. The accident was non-combat related, the military said. (Albawaba.com)
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