- US snipers have killed at least 11 people in the Iraqi
city of Ramadi, while air strikes on nearby Falluja town have left 18 people
dead.
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- Dr Khamis al-Saad, general director of Ramadi hospital
told Aljazeera that 11 people including a woman and children were killed
and another 18 wounded under US fire on Monday.
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- Ambulances and medical teams were targeted by US snipers
in different areas of Ramadi particularly near hospitals for women and
children, al-Saad said.
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- Two ambulance drivers and members of medical teams on
board the vehicles were also killed, he said.
- Targeted
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- Medical staff and patients inside the hospitals were
targeted and a number of them were shot in the head, the general director
said.
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- "Situation in general is unstable and deteriorating
so I call on the government and NGOs to intervene as clashes are occurring
every day," al-Saad said.
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- "Our medical institutions are receiving casualties
but medical supplies are not enough", he said.
- Earlier in the day, US forces launched air strikes on
Falluja, killing up to 18 people, including women, children and an ambulance
driver.
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- Up to 29 others were injured in the strikes which began
at 0100 GMT on different parts of the city, just west of Baghdad.
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- Missile
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- Seven people, including the driver of an ambulance, were
killed when US aircraft fired a missile at the vehicle while it was transporting
casualties near the northern gate of the city.
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- "Every time we send out an ambulance, it gets targeted,"
Dr Rafia al-Isawi, director of Falluja hospital, told Aljazeera.
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- "How are we going to transfer casualties? This is
unreasonable. The US army has no ethics.
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- "Shame on our government that cannot protect the
people," he added.
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- Three homes were destroyed in al-Shurta neighbourhood,
according to the doctor. "Women and men have died," he said.
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- Witnesses said US warplanes swooped low over the city
and some of the shelling appeared to be coming from American artillery
units deployed on Falluja's outskirts.
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- Market place blast
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- One explosion went off in a market place as the first
stall owners had just begun to set up their stalls, wounding several people
and shattering windows, witnesses said.
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- Others saw black columns of smoke rising over Falluja
and said hundreds of families had begun leaving the town which is largely
under the control of those fighting US forces and the American-backed interim
Iraqi government.
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- An Iraqi journalist told Aljazeera that fierce clashes
had also erupted near the city's northern gate.
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- Several US army tanks have been stationed at the gate.
The southern gate of the town has been closed.
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- Rising toll
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- The journalist said casualty figures were expected to
rise as the clashes showed no sign of abating.
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- US tanks were also bombing homes in al-Jughaivi neighbourhood
near the northern gate.
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- The latest attacks follow a day of fierce clashes between
Iraqi armed fighters and US troops across the country.
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- Elsewhere, one person was killed and three others wounded
in a US helicopter strike on a Baghdad commercial district, not far from
the scene of heavy fighting between US troops and armed fighters a day
earlier, witnesses said.
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- A US helicopter fired a missile on the area early on
Monday afternoon, destroying a boarded-up clothes shop, said Ahmad Karim,
who was wounded in the neck.
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- A dead man was sprawled in the street, his stomach ripped
to shreds by shrapnel, while a child was wounded in the leg and an Egyptian
worker hit in the face.
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- Earlier, US troops patrolled nearby Haifa Street, where
up to 40 people were killed and scores more wounded in clashes between
armed fighters and US soldiers the day before.
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- On Sunday, at least 110 people were killed in various
parts of the country in an escalation of gun battles, car bombs and bombardments.
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