Al-Qaida confirms Zarqawi is injured, American forces besiege Haditha

Al-Jihad al-Qaida organization in Mesopotamia confirmed that its leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was injured and called on the Islamic nation to appeal the God Almighty for his recovery. The American army in Iraq has not confirmed these news yet.

Meantime, the American forces al-Hadithah city in al-Anbar governorate to the west of Baghdad since the early hours of Wednesday when breaking in and inspection operations of houses started in search of gunmen.

Some 1,000 members of the US Marines inaugurated this large scale operation by cordoning the city by land forces supported by air force and heavy machineries and started incursion in the downtown of the city.

No clashes took place with the American forces which had not announced curfew, but the people said that the intensive deployment of the American forces prevented people from going out of their houses.

An American source talked about the killing of three gunmen and the injuring of one American soldier in the beginning of the attack. One medical source said that two persons were killed and another was injured by the fire of the American forces.

This large scale attack concentrates on this city whose population tolls 90,000 under the charges of sheltering gunmen. A small Iraqi military unit is taking part in this operation.

In another field development, news reports in Dahouk city to the north of Iraq said that two explosives went off near an oil filling station and resulted in killing one police member and injuring other 7 including two officers as well as three civilians.