Rumsfeld expects difficult battles, scores killed in American bombardment in Falluja hospital
News reports said that the American forces bombarded by 8 missiles the "stand by" hospital for Falluja in the downtown of Falluja and destroyed it completely. News stated that scores were killed inside it.
This comes at a time when violent bombardment continued against Falujja city to the west of Baghdad and concentrated on Golan quarters. Citizens inside the city said that the American artillery shelling, planes and tanks shelling are falling intensively in the said quarters.
News reports denied that the American forces have broken into the said quarters. Earlier AFP quoted American army officers as saying that the marines entered Golan quarters and controlled the train stations.
On Monday evening these American forces started a large scale attack against Falluja in an attempt to control it.
In his first comment on these operations, the US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that these operations will not be easy and will be a painful strike against what he described as terrorists who obstruct the work of the Iraqi government, as he alleged.
He added in a joint press conference with the chief of staff of the US army Richard Mayors that dismantling what he called holes of terrorists as the situation in Falluja is a necessary matter in order to achieve security for the Iraqis and facilitate the making of the elections in January 2005. Rumsfeld also stressed that the Falluja operation is made in complete coordination with the Iraqi government and at its request in order to bring back security.
For his part Mayors stressed that Falluja battle will not be the last resort to power for the sake of what he called liberating Iraq from elements of the former regime and foreign fighters who do not want Iraq to succeed, adding that other operations will be carried out at a smaller scale.
The US Department Of State announced that secretary Colin Powell contacted his counterparts in Poland, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia to explain to them the reasons behind the military attack against Falluja, promising to make all possible efforts to avert killing of victims among the civilians.
In New York, the Iraqi ambassador at the UN compared what he called the rebels of Falluja to the Taliban movement and criticized statements made by the UN secretary general Kofi Annan in which he said that the attack against the city might affect the elections in Iraq.