American military officials said a safe house used by the network of al-Zarqawi — who has a $10m price on his head — had been hit by a “precision strike”. But they confirmed there was no sign that the elusive Jordanian terrorist himself had been hit.
Sabbar al-Janabi, a local police chief, said an American warplane had fired twice in a residential area at 9.30am. Witnesses described chaotic scenes in which bodies were dug out from piles of rubble and twisted steel.
American forces have stayed largely clear of the city, which is 35 miles west of Baghdad, since heavy fighting there in April claimed hundreds of lives. The Falluja Brigade, a volunteer force, has been in charge of security during an uneasy truce but US intelligence officials believe al-Zarqawi, who is thought to be responsible for attacks across Iraq, has hidden there.
Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt said there had been “multiple secondary explosions of ammunition and roadside bomb making material” in yesterday’s attack.
He did not dispute Iraqi accounts of the toll, saying there had been “significant evidence that there were members of the Zarqawi network in the house”.
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As well as a bloody campaign of suicide bombings, al-Zarqawi is blamed for the grisly decapitation of an American hostage, Nick Berg. His group, Jama’at al-Tawhid and Jihad, claimed responsibility for the assassination of Iraq’s Governing Council leader, Izzedin Salim, on May 17 in a suicide car bomb attack near the headquarters of the US-led authorities in Baghdad.
Most recently al-Zarqawi has been blamed for car bombs last Thursday that killed 35 people and wounded 145 at an Iraqi military recruiting centre in Baghdad.
President George Bush has cited his presence in Iraq before the April 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein as evidence of contacts between Al-Qaeda and the former Iraqi regime.
The US State Department’s Rewards for Justice website says he was born on October 30, 1966, in Zarqa, Jordan — hence his name, which is an alias. He is also known to use other identities.
American military officials have said that pacifying the Sunni-dominated city of Falluja before the June 30 handover of sovereignty to an Iraqi interim administration is vital. But following yesterday’s deaths there were claims that Falluja may once again revolt against the coalition forces.
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The death toll was high because a second US missile had struck during an operation to help victims of the first, according to angry residents. “The second missile killed those trying to carry out the rescue,” said Wissam Ali Hamad, whose neighbours’ houses were destroyed.
Those desperately scrabbling through the rubble said several bodies were badly charred in the blast and subsequent fires destroyed two houses and left six others in ruins.
Television pictures showed a huge crater where one house had stood, slabs of concrete and steel reinforcing bars upended and twisted and water spilling from a burst main. The dead were taken to a “martyrs’ cemetery”, so-called because many killed in the fighting in April are buried there.
At least three women and five children were said to have been killed yesterday.
“They brought us 22 corpses, children, women and youths,” said Ahmed Hassan, a cemetery worker, who was preparing the fresh graves. An elderly man sat nearby weeping as helpers asked him how many of his family members were killed.
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“I don’t know. Maybe 10,” he said.
It was the bloodiest day in Falluja since the battles in April, which erupted after four American security contractors were ambushed and their mutilated bodies strung up from a bridge.
Fighting continued elsewhere in Iraq yesterday as insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at American troops near Baqouba, 30 miles northeast of Baghdad. Coalition forces in the area — part of the restive “Sunni triangle” — have struggled to contain violence there over the past week and an American soldier died from wounds inflicted during the fighting on Friday.
The conflict began after American officers and local officials were attacked by insurgents as they met at the mayor’s office to discuss development projects. The fighting escalated as troops returned the next day and raided the home of a militants’ leader, who was wounded and arrested.
Dr Nassir Jawad, of the Baqouba general hospital, said at least six Iraqis were killed and 54 were wounded in the fighting. Municipal officials had said 13 Iraqis died. American officials put the Iraqi death toll at 10 in the Thursday fighting and five on Friday.
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A spate of attempts to sabotage Iraq’s oil industry showed no sign of abating. In the British-controlled southern sector, a roadside bomb between Basra and al-Zubayr killed a Portuguese security official working for the state-run Oil Products Company and his Iraqi policeman guard. An Indian and an Iraqi were also wounded.
Militants are increasingly targeting the oil industry. Last Wednesday the security chief of the Northern Oil Company, Ghazi Talabani, was killed in Kirkuk and attacks on pipelines have severely disrupted exports.
Exports from Iraq’s northern oilfield near Kirkuk were halted last month due to sabotage on the pipeline to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, Turkey.
Iraq has been exporting about 1.5m barrels of crude oil daily, valued at £27m through two southern pipelines, both of which were being repaired yesterday and were expected to be restored to operation this week.
Recovery of the oil industry is vital to the future prosperity of the war-battered nation.