Scores flee Fallujah after US air strikes

FALLUJAH Hundreds of people fled the Iraqi rebel-held Fallujah yesterday after a heavy night of US air strikes, while an Iraqi cameraman working for Reuters was killed during clashes in the nearby hotspot of Ramadi.

“There are a bunch of cars leaving the city right now, about 400 cars backed up,” said US marine gunnery sergeant Brett Turck. “I don’t know if it is a mass exodus or regular traffic flows.”The movement came after the US military unleashed an air raid on the flashpoint city west of Baghdad in what has become a near daily bombardment.”A US air force plane engaged a pre-planned target using precision ordnance, which destroyed a known enemy cache site on the southeast side of the city,” it said in a statement.A marine official said the mission lasted for about two hours.Thousands of residents have fled the Sunni Muslim bastion since the US military began a campaign of air strikes during the summer in the hunt for the Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his followers who are believed to use the city as an operating base.Zarqawi, a Jordanian national who is Iraq’s most wanted man, is blamed for some of the worst bombings and kidnappings in the country since last year’s US-led invasion.A large proportion of the 250 000-strong population is thought to have left already, US military officials say.Some have settled in camps to the west of the city while others have sought shelter in nearby towns or in Baghdad.US ground troops have encircled Fallujah since mid-October, and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi issued an ultimatum to the city on Sunday to surrender insurgents holed up inside or face an all-out military assault.Violent clashes flared on Monday in the sister city of Ramadi, to the west of Fallujah, leaving at least six people dead, including a cameraman working for the London-based Reuters news agency.Dhia Najim, a 57-year-old freelance video cameraman, was apparently shot dead by a sniper while on assignment for Reuters, one of its reporters in Baghdad said.It was unclear whether the sniper had been an insurgent or a US soldier.The US military is known to have stationed marksmen in Ramadi as it fights to restore order to the lawless city.A video camera found on Najim, a father of four, showed pictures of previous attacks on US-led troops, the military added.A doctor at Ramadi’s hospital on Monday reported that a total of six people had been killed and 15 others wounded in clashes during the day.Expectations of a two-pronged assault on Fallujah and Ramadi – believed to be the nerve centre of Iraq’s violent insurgency – are rising as the interim government vows to crush rebels ahead of elections promised by January.Najim’s death brings to at least 46 the number of journalists and other media workers killed in Iraq since the beginning of the US-led invasion in 2003, according to a tally by Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders.- Nampa-AFP”I don’t know if it is a mass exodus or regular traffic flows.”The movement came after the US military unleashed an air raid on the flashpoint city west of Baghdad in what has become a near daily bombardment.”A US air force plane engaged a pre-planned target using precision ordnance, which destroyed a known enemy cache site on the southeast side of the city,” it said in a statement.A marine official said the mission lasted for about two hours.Thousands of residents have fled the Sunni Muslim bastion since the US military began a campaign of air strikes during the summer in the hunt for the Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his followers who are believed to use the city as an operating base.Zarqawi, a Jordanian national who is Iraq’s most wanted man, is blamed for some of the worst bombings and kidnappings in the country since last year’s US-led invasion.A large proportion of the 250 000-strong population is thought to have left already, US military officials say.Some have settled in camps to the west of the city while others have sought shelter in nearby towns or in Baghdad.US ground troops have encircled Fallujah since mid-October, and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi issued an ultimatum to the city on Sunday to surrender insurgents holed up inside or face an all-out military assault.Violent clashes flared on Monday in the sister city of Ramadi, to the west of Fallujah, leaving at least six people dead, including a cameraman working for the London-based Reuters news agency.Dhia Najim, a 57-year-old freelance video cameraman, was apparently shot dead by a sniper while on assignment for Reuters, one of its reporters in Baghdad said.It was unclear whether the sniper had been an insurgent or a US soldier.The US military is known to have stationed marksmen in Ramadi as it fights to restore order to the lawless city.A video camera found on Najim, a father of four, showed pictures of previous attacks on US-led troops, the military added.A doctor at Ramadi’s hospital on Monday reported that a total of six people had been killed and 15 others wounded in clashes during the day.Expectations of a two-pronged assault on Fallujah and Ramadi – believed to be the nerve centre of Iraq’s violent insurgency – are rising as the interim government vows to crush rebels ahead of elections promised by January.Najim’s death brings to at least 46 the number of journalists and other media workers killed in Iraq since the beginning of the US-led invasion in 2003, according to a tally by Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders.- Nampa-AFP