The U.S. military launched its third airstrike in a week Friday in Fallujah, using precision weapons to destroy a suspected safehouse for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network. U.S. officials estimated there were 20-25 Iraqi casualties.
The Jordanian-born activist claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks in other Iraqi cities that killed more than 100 people Thursday.
"Wherever and whenever we find elements of the Zarqawi network, we will attack them," a military statement said of the strike.
U.S. officials estimated 20-25 casualties in the attack. Al-Jazeera television, in a report from Fallujah, said four U.S. missiles hit a vacant house in the eastern part of the city, injuring four residents of a nearby home.
Earlier Friday, U.S. tanks and armored vehicles maneuvered on a highway near the edges of Fallujah, firing down both sides of the road. Seven people died in two days of fighting there, hospital officials said.
Elsewhere, three mortar shells exploded early Friday near an oil pipeline damaged last week by sabotage, police Capt. Mushtaq Talib said. The latest explosion caused no damage, Talib said, according to The AP. (Albawaba.com)
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