Philippines withdraws all its forces within 24 hours, Allawi agrees to bombard Falluja
Iraq-Philippines, Politics, 7/19/2004

One official in the office of the Interim Iraqi prime minister said that the prime minister gave his consent on the American air raid which targeted Falujja city to the west of Baghdad and resulted in killing 14 persons and wounding many others.

The official who asked to be anonymous said that the multi national forces asked Allawi's permission to launch what he called an operation of a limited objective at certain position where what he called terrorists are hiding.

The missiles of the American warplanes yesterday at dawn bombarded a house in al-Shuhadaa ( martyrs) quarters in the southern outskirts of Falluja. Witnesses said that the missiles hit a house inhabited by a very poor family and that remains of the killed people scattered in the place.

For his part, an officer in Falluja contingent, responsible for protecting the civilians said he had heard the warplanes and then four explosions hit a house inhabited by civilians. Medical sources said that 6 bodies including one for a woman arrived at the hospital.

The American army announced that the raid against Falujja targeted one suspect linked to al-Zarqawi cells, pointing the bombardment left behind 25 killed persons.

Yesterday's raid was the 6th against al-Falluja since June 19. Allawi vowed following an American bombardment of a house on July 5th to maintain a closer cooperation with the Americans in order to eliminate what he called terrorism.

The American forces alleged in previous raids that it had targeted al-Zarqawi, but the people of the city stressed that al-Zarqawi is not in their city and that victims of the raids are civilians including children and women.

Meantime, relatives of the wounded and damaged people in Falujja made a sit in in the downtown of the city demanding compensations fore the destruction inflected as a result of military operations against the city in April.

Many of the damaged people said that the compensations arrived in the city could not meet the inflected destruction. The observers of the sit in also demanded UN and humanitarian organizations of providing rapid solutions that can put an end to their sufferings. The sit in was attended by Falluja commander and police leader.

On the other hand, a booby trapped car went off near a barrier for the security forces and the police academy in the downtown of Tikrit city to the north of Baghdad yesterday morning. Iraqi security forces said the explosion resulted in wounding one police man and damaged several cars.

In a later development, one American military spokesman said yesterday that Sufyan Maher Hassan, Lt. Gen. in the Iraqi Republican guard, was detained near Tikrit two days earlier, noting that Lt. Gen. Sufyan is suspected of financing and preparing for several attacks in Iraq.

Meantime, the Philippines' foreign ministry said that it will withdraw the remaining number of its forces deployed in Iraq today ( Monday) in order to rescue the life of the Philippine's hostage Angelo De La Croz, who was kidnapped by an armed Iraqi group naming itself " the Islamic army, Khaled Bin al-Walid group."

The Philippines foreign minister Delia Albert said that his country's forces -- composed of 51 soldiers -- are preparing to hand over responsibilities for the Polish forces in Babel governorate. The first batch of the Philippine soldiers left al-Hella city last Friday.

Previous Stories:
  Allawi urges Manila not to be subjected to kidnappers demands; A beheaded body was found in Iraq   (7/16/2004)
  Kidnappers of the Philippine hostage send last warning   (7/16/2004)
  Manila responds to the demands of the kidnappers of the Philippine's hostage   (7/13/2004)

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