18 Iraqis were killed in Falluja, Allawi removes al-Rubei
Iraq, Politics, 9/14/2004

The number of Iraqis killed as a result of the continuous American air and land military operations in Falluja city since yesterday morning increased to 18 killings and 20 wounded.

Eight persons who were on the board of an ambulance were killed after the car was hit by an American missile. One witness said that the killed persons were the driver of the car, two women nurses and five wounded.

Ten persons were killed in an air raid launched by the American forces yesterday morning against the police quarters in Falluja. People of the area said that among the killed were women and children. However, the American forces said that the raid was precise and targeted a house including supporters of Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi.

Iraqi sources said that the American bombardment forced hundreds of the Iraqi families to leave the city which is controlled by gunmen against the American forces and the interim Iraqi government.

The American forces used loudspeakers to urge the people of Falluja to cooperate with them to expel what it called " terrorists" from the heart of the city. These forces which alleged that foreign fighters are using Falluja as a base for their military activities, set up inspection points very close to the northern, western and southern entrances of the city.

Meantime, the al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad group which is led by al-Zarqawi said in a statement on the Internet said that it downed one American pilot-less plane near Falluja city, but the American forces denied knowing news as such.

In a new development, the governor of Dahouk, NigerVan Ahmad survived an assassination attempt by one explosive while he was on his way to his work place and this resulted in injuring two of his personal guards.

In Baqouba to the north of Baghdad, one national security member was killed while trying to dismantle an explosive implanted on the roadside to the south west of the city.

The attacks on Falluja and the field developments in Karkouk and Baqouba came following one of the bloodiest days in Iraq as at least 100 Iraqis were killed in various parts of the country in an escalation of the acts of violence in Baghdad.

The Iraqi ministry of health announced that most of the killed were in Baghdad where 37 persons were killed and in Tell Afar near the Syrian borders where 51 persons were killed.

On the other hand, news reports quoted an official in the office of the Iraqi interim prime minister Eyad Allawi as saying that the latter removed the national security advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubei and appointed instead of him the minister of state Qasem Dawoud to the post of the minister of state for national security affairs.

The official who asked to be unanimous said that he does not know anything about the fate of Muwaffaq al-Rubei who was appointed in this post by the former American administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer. One source in al-Rubei office in Baghdad said that the former national security advisor is now outside Iraq.

Despite the continued deteriorated security conditions in Iraq, Allawi said the elections will be held in its due time in January 2005.

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