Iraq's interim prime minister said Iraqi intelligence work led to a "precision" US air strike on a suspected Islamist militant target in the lawless city of Falluja, where the death toll rose to 13 yesterday.
Hospital sources said women and children were among the casualties in Monday's raid, which also wounded seven people.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said the air raid hit a house used by the network of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, viewed by US and Iraqi officials as an al-Qaeda ally who has masterminded many suicide bombings and other killings in Iraq.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Allawi's government wants to enlist Iraqi opinion against Zarqawi and his ilk, but taking joint responsibility for US air strikes is a risky strategy -- many Iraqis are angered by Zarqawi's tactics, but few are convinced that US raids kill only foreign militants, rather than Iraqi civilians.
"A family of 10 killed in their homes -- what's the reason for this? What are they looking for here? What kind of policy is this?" a neighbor at the scene of the Falluja raid said.
Allawi said in a statement that his government and US-led multinational forces had consulted before the bombing.
"Iraqi security forces provided clear and compelling intelligence to conduct a precision strike this evening on a known Zarqawi safe house in southeastern Falluja," he added.
Meanwhile, kidnappers in Iraq yesterday released a Lebanese-born US Marine they were once thought to have decapitated, his brother said.
Wassef Ali Hassoun's brother Sami, speaking from the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, said his family had received word Hassoun was alive and had been freed in the early hours, but declined to specify the source of the information.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
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