U.S. Strike Kills 10 In Fallujah Mosque, Iraqis Vow Revenge/IslamOnline/July 1

http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-07/01/article01.shtml

U.S. Strike Kills 10 In Fallujah Mosque, Iraqis Vow Revenge

photo: Iraqis look at a huge hole in a Falluja mosque reportedly caused by a U.S. missile or bomb

FALLUJAH, Iraq, July 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Angry residents in Fallujah vowed revenge Tuesday, July 1, after ten people were reportedly killed in the main mosque which, witnesses said, was pounded by an American helicopter gunship late Monday, June 30.

According to the American Fox News channel and the Associated Press (AP), the death toll of the attack, which was earlier put at eight, mounted to ten people.

A U.S. helicopter had pounded Al-Hassan mosque in Fallujah, west of the capital Baghdad, on Monday night.

Eyewitnesses told Al-Jazeera channel they saw a U.S. helicopter gunship firing a missile at the mosque, where a number of worshippers were listening to a religious lesson.

"This mosque is where the resistance will effectively start," shouted a man, as other men around him cheered.

Sheikh Ahmad al-Janabi, a scholar at the mosque, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that "targeting the mosque is a provocation to all Muslims."

"If their (Muslims') mosques are threatened, what would they do? What do the Americans expect from us? Simply retaliation," the sheikh told AFP.

Witnesses said a ball of fire ripped through the mosque, destroying two rooms and gouging a hole in its dome, leaving several people wounded including the Imam, Sheikh Laith, whose leg was amputated.

The mosque Imam Sheikh Laith was wounded in the U.S. raidﾝ

Many residents gathered at the mosque early Tuesday to survey the damage and many expressed anger at the sight.

A U.S. military official told AFP that he could not confirm what caused the explosions, adding, "We are waiting for further information."

The flashpoint town had woken up to news of another rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack on the main U.S. military base located at the government office at 3:50 am (2350 GMT Monday), residents told AFP.

There was no word on casualties or damage from the attack, which they said prompted U.S. troops to return fire and comb areas around the base.

Two cars passing near the area were stopped by the troops who detained their passengers, including an eight-year-old boy, witnesses said.

U.S. forces have imposed an overnight curfew on Fallujah, but residents are challenging the order.

U.S. forces have recently stepped up their presence in the conservative Sunni Muslim town known as the "City of Mosques" which is located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad, carrying out intensive searches across broad swathes of the region.

On Tuesday, June 24, American occupation forces came under fresh grenade attack in Fallujah, which is simmering with rage three months into the U.S. military occupation of Iraq.

A photo of the imam$@!G(Js leg after it was amputated.jpg

An attacker had fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an American military convoy Thursday, June 5, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding five.

But residents here did not feel regretful, as they still remember when 19 innocent civilians were gunned down by the U.S. forces during a demonstration for an end of occupation last April. Since then, many vowed revenge.

In many ways, the city has become emblematic of the complex tangle of problems facing the U.S.-led occupation.

American patrols come under regular fire from Iraqis armed with weapons available since Saddam Hussein was toppled under promises of a better life in the horizon.

This in turn has left the American soldiers edgy and much less friendly with the Iraqis.

While the U.S. forces say they want to let Iraqis run their own affairs as soon as possible, they have poured more than 1,000 extra troops in and around the city in the past few days to try to curb anti-occupation attacks.

Click to watch angry Iraqis and victims