The U.S military launched an airstrike Monday on a safehouse in the city of Fallujah, the military said. At least 12 people were killed, officials and witnesses said.
Ambulances sped to the eastern side of the city while rescue workers picked up remains of the dead, witnesses said, according to The AP.
Four 500-pound bombs and two 1,000-pound bombs were dropped, the military said.
The military said the operation employed "precision weapons" and noted the "resolve to jointly destroy terrorist networks within Iraq."
"U.S. jets shelled a residential house in the al-Shuhdaa neighborhood in Fallujah," said police Capt. Mekky Hussein al-Zaidan.
U.S. forces have hit the area with four airstrikes since June 19, in a bid to kill Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian said to be connected to al-Qaeda. Dozens of people were killed in these US attacks.
A land mine Monday blew up along the main route to the southern city of Samawah, where Japanese troops are based, police said. No injuries were reported.
Early Monday, Iraqi fighters fired rockets at a government building in southern Iraq, but instead struck nearby homes, killing one and wounding seven other, police said. The rockets that launched shortly after midnight were directed at the province's main offices near the center of the city.
Meanwhile, Iraqi forces arrested two Iranians trying to detonate a car bomb Monday in a residential neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, authorities said, according to The AP.
Iraqi officials have blamed foreign elements for a wave of bombing attacks in recent months. The arrests Monday were the first time they actually captured any foreign fighters, according to Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman, an interior ministry spokesman.
He conveyed the men had been captured in the Talbiyah neighborhood as they tried to set off a car bomb. (albawaba.com)
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