現在地 HOME > 掲示板
> 戦争50 > 770.html
★阿修羅♪
|
現在地 HOME > 掲示板
> 戦争50 > 770.html
★阿修羅♪
|
|
| Tweet |
(回答先: U.S. Hits Mosque Compound; 40 Said Killed【Middle East - AP】 投稿者 処方箋 日時 2004 年 4 月 08 日 00:24:48)
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - US marines pressing an offensive in this Iraqi town west of Baghdad bombed a central mosque and killed up to 40 insurgents holed up inside, a marine officer said.
[US Marines from the1st Marine Expeditionary Force move into Fallujah. US marines pressing an offensive in this Iraqi town west of Baghdad bombed a central mosque and killed up to 40 insurgents holed up inside, a marine officer said.
(AFP/Cris Bouroncle) Wed Apr 7,11:54 AM ET]
The bombing came after several hours of small arms and rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) fire from insurgents, which left five marines slightly wounded, said Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne.
Byrne said there were "as many as 40 rebels" inside the mosque. The bombed building was being combed late Wednesday, but Byrne doubted there were any survivors. Some weapons were found.
"We have killed the people fighting against us," Byrne, the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, told reporters embedded with the unit.
Fallujah residents confirmed the Abdulaziz al-Samarai mosque was hit along with the building of the Islamic Scholars' Association. There was no official word on the incident from coalition military headquarters.
After the insurgents holed up in the mosque struck a humvee vehicle with an RPG, lightly wounding five soldiers, the marines opted for their heavy weaponry.
First a warplane fired off guns, then a Cobra helicopter shot off a Hellfire missile at the mosque and finally an aircraft dropped a laser-guided precision bomb, Byrne said.
The roar of jets shook the city, caught in the midst of a brutal urban battle pitting the marines against the insurgents who have bled the coalition forces for months and ambushed and mutilated four US contractors last week.
Byrne said the marines carried out the raid as precisely as they could because there are people living nearby. Marines also came under RPG fire from guerrillas in a second mosque Wednesday.
The head of the Marines First Division, General James Mattis, defended the attack, warning if rebels used places of worship in their war against US forces, his troops would not hesitate to strike them at sacred sites.
"If they barricade themselves inside a mosque, we are not going to care about the mosque anymore than they do," Mattis said.
US forces have claimed that the rebels who are fiercely opposed to the US-led occupation of Iraq (news - web sites) were using mosques to fire on marines and to hide weapons.
Earlier Wednesday, all the city mosques called for a "jihad" (holy war) against occupation forces amid intense bombardments and aircraft overflights, an AFP correspondent said.
The insurgents said in a communique they had shot down three US helicopters, destroyed two jeeps and two armored vehicles.
They also said they were still in control of the city and had put US forces to flight.
Meanwhile, Byrne said the marines advancing from the south reached the center of Fallujah amid fierce fighting on the third day of "Operation Vigilant Resolve" to root out the insurgents who have plagued the US-led occuaption of Iraq.
"The marines are now at the center of the city," he told AFP.
It was not immediately clear if marines advancing from the north had also reached the center of Fallujah, which lies west of Baghdad.
Marines also came under fire around a second mosque in the city that the marines had searched the previous day.
An RPG was shot at marines in an alley from the direction of the mosque's tall minarets, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
One marine was shot in the arm in a separate attack by insurgents, an officer said on condition of anonymity.
The officer said a helicopter gunship shot and killed one insurgent who had fired a rocket-propelled grenade on marines Wednesday.
The body of an insurgent who was killed Tuesday was still lying on the ground of a street in southern Fallujah.
[Wed, Apr 07, 2004 1 hour, 3 minutes ago]
US marines bomb mosque with up to 40 insurgents inside: officer
題名には必ず「阿修羅さんへ」と記述してください。