- BAGHDAD (IslamOnline.net
& News Agencies) - U.S. occupation forces killed 10 Iraqi ãattackersä
in north-central Iraq on Thursday, November 20, as at least 16 others,
including children, were slain in a series of explosions separately rocking
the war-ravaged country.
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- U.S. forces using helicopters and tanks killed 10 people
in the north-central Iraqi city of Samarra, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry
Division was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying Thursday.
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- Lieutenant-Colonel Bill MacDonald said that those killed
tried to attack a U.S. envoy with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades
to ambush the convoy on Wednesday, November 19, afternoon.
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- He said U.S. troops used machine-guns, helicopters and
tank canons in the attack, killing 10 people and destroying three cars.
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- The United States blame the attack against its forces
on remnants of the Saddam regime, but resentment over continued occupation
of the oil-rich country is running high among local inhabitants, also jeered
by the U.S. military provocations including detentions and random shootings.
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- About 300 lawyers demonstrated Thursday in the northern
city of Mosul against the detention by U.S. forces of two colleagues, one
day after U.S. occupation forces launched all-out air and ground raids
and detained more than 161 people in northern Iraq.
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- Fresh Explosions
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- In the meantime, four Iraqis were killed and 18 wounded
in the northern oil centre of Kirkuk on Thursday, when a bomber blew up
a car packed with explosives at a checkpoint near Kurdish offices, police
and officials said.
-
- The target of the attack was the offices of the two main
Kurdish factions - the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic
Party - but the vehicle was stopped 200 meters (yards) away, said Sherku
Shaker, chief of police.
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- The dead apart from the bomber were a schoolmistress
and two pupils caught up in the blast in the busy city centre district,
he said.
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- Five of the wounded were from the PUK, local commander
Jalal Jowher said.
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- He accused members of either Kurdish-based group Ansar
Al-Islam or Al-Qaeda of being behind ãthis cowardly actä.
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- Noticeably, many Iraqis accuse the two Kurdish factions
of collaboration with occupation forces, suggestion used by observers to
explain similar attacks against the U.S.-employed Iraqi chiefs.
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- Iraqi Education Minister Ala'a Abdul Sahib Al-Alwan said
on Wednesday that a top official with the Iraqi Education Ministry has
been assassinated in Diwaniyah province by unknown assailants.
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- More Deaths
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- In the western Baghdad town of Ramadi, 8 Iraqis were
killed and 12 wounded in a car bomb explosion overnight outside the home
of a leading tribal sheikh, medical sources said Thursday.
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- Two platoons rushed to the scene, and said the outer
wall of the guest house had collapsed, causing many of the casualties,
according to CNN.
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- Iraqi police said eight Iraqis were killed in the blast
-- including some of the sheikh's relatives.
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- Two bystanders were killed and seven people in adjoining
homes were injured, a U.S. military official said.
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- The attack was one of a spate of five rocking the city
on Wednesday, just a day after local U.S. commander Major General Charles
Swannack hailed a major improvement in security in the town that might
permit a U.S. troop pullback by year-end.
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- It came a few days after the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division
launched a series of raids against resistance fighters, leaving 26 local
inhabitants detained.
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- More Children
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- In southern Baghdad, two Iraqi children were killed and
two wounded when an explosion ripped through a classroom near the Shiite
Muslim pilgrimage city of Karbala, medical staff said Thursday.
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- ãOne of the wounded suffered serious injuries.
The children were 11 or 12,ä the director of Karbala's Al-Hussein
Hospital, Abbas Mussa al-Tamimi told AFP.
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- Police said they had opened an inquiry into Wednesday's
blast at the Al-Abed school, two kilometers (just over a mile) west of
the city.
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- It was not immediately clear whether the explosion was
the result of a deliberate attack or one of the children had brought unexploded
ordnance into the school as a toy.
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- Many unexploded missiles were left in Iraq by the U.S.
forces after weeks of a large-scale attack beginning on March 20.
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- Jordanian Embassy Attacked
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- Also Thursday, an Iraqi policeman was killed as unknown
assailants fired on the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, Jordan's foreign
ministry spokesman said.
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- "Unknown assailants in a passing car fired shots
at the Jordanian embassy and killed an Iraqi policeman on guard,"
Ali Al-Ayed said, adding that no diplomats were hurt.
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- ãThe Jordanian embassy is in contact with the
concerned parties in Iraq to shed light on the affair,ä he said.
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- Fourteen people were killed and more than 40 wounded
in a devastating car-bomb attack on Jordan's embassy in the Iraqi capital
on August 7.
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- The foreign ministry spokesman stressed that ãall
these desperate attempts will not affect the commitment of Jordan to fulfill
its duty towards the Iraqi peopleä.
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- Since the August bombing, Jordanian diplomats have not
been using the embassy offices but moved to another building in a residential
district of Baghdad, Ayed said.
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- http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-11/20/article05.shtml
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