Dozens of anti-American insurgents stormed Iraqi security compounds in the volatile town of Falluja yesterday in a bold attack that left at least 22 people dead and freed a number of prisoners.
Falluja police chief Aboud al-Dulaimi said about 70 guerrillas firing rockets, mortars and machineguns launched the closely coordinated attack on a police headquarters as well as on a compound for the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC) and the mayor's office.
Police and hospital officials said 14 policemen, four insurgents and four civilians were killed in the attack, the latest in a series of assaults on Iraqi security forces seen by the insurgents as supporting the US occupation.
At least 35 others were wounded in the attack.
An Iraqi police officer said the guerrillas outgunned the policemen at the station. A government building several hundred meters away was assaulted at the same time.
"Unknown men fired mortars, explosives and light machineguns from four directions.
Their weapons were more powerful than our Kalashnikovs," said police officer Earazan Abu Issa, who was outside the police station when it was attacked.
The attack signalled a growing boldness on the part of insurgents fighting US-led forces and Iraqis they regard as supporting the occupiers.
On Thursday, the top US commander in the Middle East, General John Abizaid, narrowly escaped an assault on his convoy at the attacked ICDC compound in Falluja, located some 50km west of Baghdad in what is known as the "Sunni Triangle" center of resistance to US forces.
US planes circled overhead and dropped heat balloons to divert heat-seeking anti-aircraft missiles, witnesses said.
Guerrillas have killed more than 600 security and police forces since April in an attempt to undermine US efforts to prepare Iraqis to take over security of the country.
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