http://www.theaustralian.news....85706%255E1702,00.html
Now that Bush won't suffer any political repercussions, the war is back on. Good thing he's making Iraq safer by attacking it again.
US warplanes struck insurgent positions overnight in the rebel-held Iraqi flashpoint town of Fallujah, the US military said early today.
In two air raids carried out just after midnight, US aircraft bombed rebel positions in the north-east and south-east of the town, 50km west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a military statement said.
"US Air Force aircraft... struck a pre-planned target with precision weapons, striking known anti-Iraqi barricaded fighting positions" in both the north-east and south-east, the military said.
The raids were carried out by planes backing the 1st Marine Expeditionary Corps, which also destroyed several rebel fighting positions during the past 12 hours, the statement said.
Multi-National Forces West have also recovered and destroyed large numbers of rockets, artillery shells and mortars, as well as other explosives, the military said.
Thousands of residents have fled the Sunni Muslim bastion of Fallujah since the US military began a campaign of air strikes during the summer in the hunt for Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his followers who are believed to use the city as an operating base.
Zarqawi, a Jordanian national who is Iraq's most wanted man, is blamed for some of the worst bombings and kidnappings in the country since last year's US-led invasion.
US ground troops have encircled Fallujah since mid-October, and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi issued an ultimatum to the city on Sunday to surrender insurgents holed-up inside or face an all-out military assault.
Now that Bush won't suffer any political repercussions, the war is back on. Good thing he's making Iraq safer by attacking it again.