US Military Bombs Suspected Militant Stronghold South of Baghdad
By VOA News
21 January 2008
The U.S. military says it has carried out a third air assault on a suspected militant stronghold south of Baghdad.
A military statement released Monday says bombers and fighter jets struck more than 10 targets in the Sunni-majority area called Arab Jabour on Sunday. The al-Qaida in Iraq militant group is suspected of using houses in Arab Jabour to store weapons and plan attacks.
Two U.S. air raids earlier this month dropped some 80,000 pounds of bombs on the area.
The military also said Iraqi special forces soldiers killed a commander of extremist groups during a raid in Baghdad Monday.
North of Baghdad, near Mosul, Iraqi police say a bomb in a parked car killed two people and wounded nine others.
Police in Qaiyara say they suspect the bomb planted in a parked car was targeting an Iraqi army patrol.
On Sunday, U.S. officials reported a dramatic fall in the number of attacks from specialized roadside bombs believed to have been manufactured in Iran.
U.S. officials have accused Iran of supplying the armor-piercing weapons, called Explosively Formed Penetrators, or EFPs, to militant groups targeting U.S. forces in Iraq. Tehran has denied the accusation.
U.S. officials say that while the number of EFPs has fallen, Iraqi insurgents continue to receive training and financing from Iran.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
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