Eight US marines were killed and nine wounded west of Baghdad yesterday in the bloodiest attack on US forces in Iraq for months, while a car bomb targeting a television station office in Baghdad killed seven people and injured 19.
The US military gave no details of the circumstances of the deaths of the eight marines, which it said occurred in the western province of Anbar, which includes the rebel cities of Falluja and Ramadi.
Witnesses said they had seen three US vehicles burning on a road east of Falluja, in Anbar province. It was not clear if that is where the marine casualties occurred.
In Baghdad, police Lieutenant Ziad Tareq said a car bomb detonated near the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television network's building in the western Mansour neighborhood of the capital killed seven people, including one woman. Dr. Ahmed Ali of Yarmouk Hospital said 19 people were brought in for injuries in the blast.
Network correspondent Najwa Qassem said there were three bodies mutilated beyond recognition on the site, including one of a woman.
She said they could not tell if any of the three bodies were those of Al-Arabiya employees. However, she confirmed that one guard and one administration worker were among the dead.
A militant group claimed responsibility for the attack on Al-Arabiya's offices. In a statement posted Saturday on a Web site clearinghouse, the group identifying itself as the "1920 Brigades" said it brought down the building of the "Americanized spies speaking in Arabic tongue."
US forces meanwhile launched airstrikes against suspected militant bases in Fallujah and carried out probing attacks on the city's outskirts, as they prepared for a major operation in the insurgent bastion that has become the symbol of Iraqi resistance.
US planners believe many of Fallujah's 300,000 residents have already fled the city, where militants last spring ambushed and killed four US contractors, mutilated their bodies and hung them from a bridge.
Up to 5,000 Islamic militants, Saddam Hussein loyalists and common criminals are hunkered down in Fallujah, US officers said Friday.
US officials stress that the final order to launch a big operation would come from Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who has warned Fallujah to hand over followers of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi or face attack.
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