/ 6 September 2004

Seven marines killed in car bomb in Fallujah

A massive car bomb exploded on the outskirts of Fallujah on Monday, killing seven United States marines and wounding several others, a US military official said.

The strength of the blast sent the engine from the vehicle used in the bombing flying ”a good distance” from the site, a military official said on condition of anonymity.

Wounded troops were being treated on Monday afternoon, the official said.

US forces have not patrolled inside Fallujah since April, when US marines ended a three-week siege. The city has since fallen into the hands of insurgents who have used it as a base to manufacture car bombs and launch attacks on US and Iraqi

government forces.

The US military has retaliated by launching several airstrikes on insurgent safe houses in the city.

Witnesses said the attack took place 15km north of Fallujah and destroyed two Humvees.

Medical teams in helicopters swept into the dusty barren site to ferry away the injured and troops sealed off the area surrounding the wreckage.

Four Iraqis, meanwhile, were taken to a hospital in Fallujah with gunshot wounds after allegedly coming under fire from US troops near the site of the car bombing, said Ahmed Bassem of the Fallujah General Hospital. The US military was unable to

immediately confirm the report.

Nine-hundred and seventy-six US service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to the Defence Department. – Sapa-AP