US raids kill family of 6 in rebel-held Iraqi city

8.15am - By YASSER FAISAL

FALLUJA - US warplanes killed a family of six in raids against rebels led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, while a top international aid agency suspended Iraq operations on Wednesday after its manager was kidnapped.

A Reuters witness saw a man and a woman and four children, two boys and two girls, being pulled out of the rubble of a razed home in the rebel-held city of Falluja, about 50km west of Baghdad.

The US military denied a family of six was killed, saying it launched four strikes against safehouses used by Zarqawi's fighters.

"Intelligence sources indicate a known Zarqawi propagandist is passing false reports to the media," it said in a statement.

Reuters television footage showed men chanting "There is no God but Allah!" as they carried the body of the father of the family of six.

"Is this the gift that (interim Iraqi Prime Minister) Iyad Allawi is giving to the people of Falluja?" asked one man, pointing to the small bodies of two of the children lying in the trunk of a car. "Every day they strike Falluja."

At least eight civilians were killed and 11 US soldiers wounded in clashes in Samarra, a northern town the US military said it had pacified following an offensive earlier this month.

Two car bombs killed a child and also wounded a civilian translator in the centre of the town, the US military said. A police official said eight civilians had been killed and 12 wounded in clashes.

Care International, an aid agency working in Iraq on health and water projects, suspended operations after its British-Iraqi manager in Iraq, Margaret Hassan, was abducted and said it might pull out of the country altogether.

Hours after she was abducted on Tuesday, Hassan, who has lived in Iraq for 30 years, was shown sitting alone and anxious in a video aired on Al Jazeera television, which said an unnamed group claimed to be holding her.

"At the moment we have suspended operations, and we will continue to pull out of the country unless we can resolve this issue," Care International chief Geoffrey Dennis told BBC radio.

Scores of foreigners have been kidnapped since April and at least 35 have been killed, several of them beheaded.

The US military says its almost nightly strikes on Falluja are carefully targeted at fighters led by Jordanian militant Zarqawi, who it says is holed up in the city.

But residents say they know nothing of Zarqawi -- some even doubt his existence -- and that the US raids kill civilians.

Allawi has warned Falluja's residents to hand over Zarqawi's followers or face military action. He has said he remains open to talks, but Western diplomats in Baghdad say an offensive against the town of 300,000 is becoming increasingly likely.

In other violence, an adviser to Allawi's political party was killed in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad on Wednesday, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Iraq's US-backed interim government is struggling to restore order to allow reconstruction of a country ravaged by years of war and UN sanctions and to allow the first democratic elections in decades to go ahead on time in January.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair told parliament he expected an upsurge of violence in Iraq before the elections.

"This has nothing to do with American (presidential) elections. It has everything to do, however, with the Iraqi elections," he said.

Blair said he had not decided yet on a US request to shift British troops to more dangerous parts of the country to free up US forces for other action.

Some accuse him of having already agreed to do so to help President George W. Bush before the Nov. 2 US presidential election, in which Iraq has been a major campaign issue.

The third US soldier to face court martial over mistreatment of prisoners in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, a scandal that sparked worldwide outrage, pleaded guilty to abusing prisoners, including forcing three to masturbate.

Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick is expected to be sentenced on Thursday in the court martial at a military base in Baghdad.

Iraq would urge other countries to help it improve security and prepare for elections at an international conference in Egypt next month, officials said.

The United Nations, European Union, Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Countries, Group of Eight top industrialised countries and China are among those planning to send representatives.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq