At least 21 people were killed and 22 wounded in a series of car bombing attacks in the Iraqi city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, Saturday morning. Early Saturday, armed men stormed a police station, killing 12 policemen and injuring one.
In Ramadi, 20 US troops were injured on Saturday, the U.S. military said. Locals reported clashes and explosions throughout the day.
Also Saturday, in western Baghdad, a suicide car bomber detonated and wounded three occupation troops, the U.S. military said. The bomber was killed and another occupant in the car was injured.
Meanwhile, U.S. warplanes bombed Fallujah late Friday in what residents called the strongest attacks in months, as more than 10,000 American soldiers and Marines massed for an expected assault.
Residents told The AP the US attack took place in the central city market that had not been hit since April as well as neighborhoods in the north, south and east of Fallujah. Earlier Friday, locals said American aircraft distributed leaflets urging women and children to leave the city.
Also on Friday, mortar shells exploded on a small American camp at Saqlawiyah west of Fallujah, the military said. U.S. troops returned fire, killing a number of armed men, the military said, according to The AP.
For the past three nights, long convoys of US forces from Baghdad and Baqouba have moved to the outskirts of Fallujah, a city that has become the symbol of Iraqi resistance.
In Belgium, Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, warned that the "window is closing" to avert an assault on Fallujah.
Elsewhere, U.S. Cobra attack helicopters fired Friday on Iraqis claimed to be operating an "illegal checkpoint" south of Baghdad, killing or wounding an "unknown number" of people, the military said. (albawba.com)
