BAGHDAD(09-18-04)US warplanes bombed the central Iraqi city of Fallujah yesterday, killing 44 people, many of them women and children. Hours later a suicide attacker detonated an explosives-packed vehicle near a row of police cars blocking off a bridge in central Baghdad, killing at least eight people.

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This report less than an hour ago from arabnews indicates things are getting steadily worse: and this all began with J. Paul Bremmer's blunder in Fallujah: and the premature entry of Blackwater security fueled the fire

US planes hit a Fallujah district, demolishing 13 houses, in what the US military called a precision strike on a terrorist compound of suspected Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi.

they bombed the wrong house: alienating the Iraqis further
this is not the only time they have attacked the wrong target

The Health Ministry said 44 people were killed and 27 wounded, and a doctor at the Fallujah General Hospital said many of the victims were women and children.

Fallujah General Hospital has been a major target of US attacks because the civialian casualty reports released from there have made the war increasingly unpopular worldwide.

Sunni cleric Sheikh Abdelghafur Al-Samarrai lashed out at the US military for the bombings. "If you have intelligence on the location of Zarqawi and his elements why don't you surround and capture them?" he asked during his weekly sermon.

The apparent reaction to this squeezed Iraqi civilians even further:

The car bomb in Baghdad gouged out a large crater on the road and set ablaze several police cars. The Interior Ministry said five policemen had been killed and the Health Ministry said at least three civilians were also dead.
It was the second car bombing this week targeting Baghdad police forces, part of a stepped up campaign of violence to thwart US-backed efforts to strengthen the Iraqi security forces and bring stability to the country ahead of January elections.

detailed reports have been archived

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