U.S. forces launched fresh attacks in and near the restive Iraqi city of Falluja overnight, killing about 60 foreign fighters, the U.S. military said on Friday.
Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) disputed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites)'s assertion that the U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web sites) was illegal and said in a newspaper interview officials recognized that Iraqi elections set for January could not proceed under the current security conditions.
Iraqi police said an air strike near the village of Qurush, between Baghdad and Falluja, had killed 20 and wounded 43. Reuters television images showed bloodied bodies, including women and children, on hospital beds in Falluja.
A U.S. military statement said U.S. warplanes mounted a "precision strike" on Thursday night near Falluja on a compound used by militants loyal to Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a man Washington says is allied to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network.
It said some 90 foreign fighters were at the compound near Qurush at the time of the attack, which took place at 9:45 p.m. (1:45 p.m. EDT) on Thursday. The Americans identified the village as Qaryat ar Rufush.
Three buildings were destroyed and the foreign fighters who escaped the strike fled into the village, the statement said.
U.S. warplanes launched a second "precision strike" early on Friday, destroying a compound in south central Falluja which the U.S. military said was used by Zarqawi militants.
There was no word of casualties from the second strike but the U.S. military said the militants targeted were believed to be linked with recent bombings that have killed scores.
U.S. forces have carried out about a dozen air strikes over recent weeks on Falluja, a Sunni stronghold west of Baghdad which has fallen into rebel hands. The offensive is part of a push to retake rebel pockets ahead of elections set for January.
Three U.S. marines were killed in separate incidents in al-Anbar province, which includes the rebel-held cities of Falluja and Ramadi, the U.S. military said. At least 777 U.S. troops have been killed in action in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion last year.
POWELL REBUTTAL
In an interview published on Friday, Powell said Annan's comment on the legality of the war was "not a very useful statement to make at this point."
"What does it gain anyone? We should all be gathering around the idea of helping the Iraqis, not getting into these kinds of side issues," Powell said in the Washington Times.
Asked whether the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq broke international law, Annan had said on Wednesday: "Yes, if you wish. I have indicated it was not in conformity with the U.N. Charter from our point of view, and from the Charter point of view it was illegal."
The United Nations (news - web sites) later played down Annan's statement, which spokesman Fred Eckhard said Annan felt was no different from what he had been saying for more than a year.
Powell said U.S. diplomats and military commanders recognized that next year's vote could not go ahead under the current security conditions in certain areas of the country but predicted it would improve.
"We don't expect the security situation as it exists now on the 16th of September to be the security situation" on the day Iraqis vote, Powell told the newspaper.
"We know and (interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi) knows that these areas have to a brought back firmly under government control."
Holding polls are crucial to U.S. plans to establish a government able to run its own security without large numbers of U.S. troops and stabilize the oil-rich nation.
In the latest kidnapping of foreigners in Iraq, gunmen abducted two Americans and a Briton from a house in an affluent central Baghdad neighborhood on Thursday.
Militants posted video footage on the Internet purportedly showing the killing of three Arabic-speaking truckers, who were also shown warning others against working with U.S. forces in Iraq. In northern Iraq, gunmen kidnapped a Syrian truck driver.