United States war planes hammered suspected rebel positions in the Iraqi city of Fallujah early on Thursday, with some Iraqis believing US President George Bush’s election victory gives him full licence to quash the insurgency.
Meanwhile, the fate of hostage Margaret Hassan was in the balance ahead of a threatened deadline by her kidnappers to hand the aid boss over to the ruthless militant group headed by Iraq’s most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
US planes bombed rebel positions overnight in Fallujah, believed to be a stronghold for Zarqawi militants.
“US air force aircraft … struck a preplanned target with precision weapons, striking known anti-Iraqi [insurgents] barricaded fighting positions,” the military said in a statement.
There were no reports of any casualties.
Thousands of families have already fled the rebel city, 50km west of Baghdad, as an all-out assault by US troops on suspected insurgents based there appeared imminent.
Many Iraqis believe Bush’s win now gives him full licence to quash the stubborn insurgency across Iraq ahead of scheduled elections in January.
“US troops will enter Fallujah, Latifiyah, Ramadi and Qaim all at once in the next few days after Bush’s re-election,” said Mohammed Al-Askari, a former army officer turned political analyst, referring to other flashpoints in Iraq.
“There is an agenda that must be implemented … Bush is now free from the pressures of his electorate.”
In Fallujah, many residents were glued to their television sets on Wednesday watching the tight race between Bush and John Kerry, hoping up until the last minute for a win by the president’s Democratic challenger.
US ground troops have encircled Fallujah since mid-October, and 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.
Both the Iraqi and US governments say the city is in the grips of Zarqawi, the alleged frontman for the al-Qaeda network in Iraq, and the man they say is responsible for the worst attacks and kidnappings.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he is very concerned about the fate of Hassan, faced with a threat by kidnappers to hand her over to Zarqawi’s group unless its demands are met by late Thursday.
Irish-born Hassan, who is married to an Iraqi, has been held by unidentified kidnappers since October 19 despite working in the country for years as director of Care International.
On Tuesday, militants threatened to hand her over to Zarqawi within 48 hours unless British troops quit Iraq, Al-Jazeera television reported. Britain, a key ally of Washington in the war in Iraq, has vowed not to give in to the demands of hostage-takers.
Some welcome Bush, some don’t
Meanwhile, Sunni Muslims, who were favoured under the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein, said they dread another Bush term, fearing that his tough policies and declared war on terror will
only increase violence and insecurity in Iraq.
In contrast, Shi’ites and Kurds welcomed Bush’s victory, regarding him as their saviour from an oppressive regime and a guarantor of their rights.
“The joy of peace and liberty,” read the headline on the front page of the daily Al-Taakhi newspaper, based in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Most other Iraqi papers simply reported the US race factually while shying away from any comment or editorials.
Many members of Allawi’s US-allied interim government said they believe a Bush win will guarantee continuity for the US-led effort to rebuild the war-ravaged country and strengthen its government and security institutions.
For his part, Allawi stressed Iraq’s special relation with the US regardless of who occupies the White House, in an interview with an Italian paper before Bush was declared winner.
“The US has liberated us from a dictator and a very long period of war and agony,” Allawi told La Repubblica.
Allawi is scheduled to meet Pope John Paul II on Thursday and hold talks with European leaders in Brussels on Friday in a bid to enlist more of their help and support for the country’s reconstruction.
Hungary withdraws troops
But in a blow to the US-led forces in Iraq, Hungary said on Wednesday it will pull out its 300-troop contingent from Iraq next year.
“To stay there until the elections are held is our duty,” said Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany. “To stay there much longer is impossible. That is why, by March 31 2005, we are withdrawing our troops from Iraq.”
The Iraqi mission has been an unpopular one in Hungary, where opinion polls have showed a majority of the population opposed to the deployment.
Hungary is one of 30 countries that contributed troops to the US-led force in Iraq in March 2003. Several allies have since withdrawn, including the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Spain.
The Hungarian soldiers are based at Hilla, south of Baghdad, under Polish command. Warsaw is also due to begin scaling down its 2 500-troop contingent in Iraq in January in the run-up to an eventual pull-out.
More deaths
On the ground, violence claimed more victims on Wednesday.
Five Jordanians, most of them truck drivers, were reported kidnapped, while a US-Lebanese contractor was seized at gunpoint from an upmarket district in Baghdad, and al-Qaeda-linked militants posted a website video showing the beheading of a man they said was a senior Iraqi army officer.
One US soldier was killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb hit an army patrol south-east of the capital, bringing to 1 117 the number of US military personnel killed in Iraq since the war, according to a Pentagon tally. — Sapa-AFP
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