At least 29 killed in bloody day in Iraq

Eight American Marines were killed in fighting west of Baghdad today, and a car bomb killed at least seven people in an attack on an Arab television station in the capital.

In a separate incident at Haswa, 25 miles south of the capital, Iraqi troops opened fire on civilian vehicles, killing at least 14 people, after a US convoy came under attack.

The US military said nine Marines were also wounded in the fighting in Anbar province west of the capital, which includes the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. The statement gave no further details on how or where they were killed.

The deaths came as US forces are gearing up for a major assault on Fallujah, seen as the toughest bastion of Sunni Muslim guerrillas, ahead of crucial elections due by January 31.

Fierce clashes erupted in Fallujah as an American military convoy entered the south-eastern industrial Shuhada neighbourhood and nearby Nueimiya village – an apparent probing foray on the city’s edges. Explosions and gunfire rocked the area and smoke was seen billowing in the air, witnesses said.

Marines responded with heavy artillery fire after insurgents shot mortar shells from positions in the south-east of the city. A Marine Harrier jet bombed a mortar position inside Fallujah and strafed it with machine-gun fire, “neutralising the target and any threat,” said Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert.

In Baghdad, the car bomb blasted the offices of the Al-Arabiya television network in the upscale Mansour neighbourhood, killing seven people and wounding 19, according to police and hospital officials.

Three bodies, including one of a woman, were mutilated beyond recognition, said Al-Arabiya correspondent Najwa Qassem. She said they could not tell if any of the three bodies were those of Al-Arabiya employees. However, she confirmed that one guard and one administration worker were among the dead.

The blast collapsed the first floor of the building, where staffers were holding a meeting, said Saad al-Husseini, a correspondent of MBC, a sister channel of Al-Arabiya based in the same building.

Employees “were trapped between fire and the shattering shards of glass,” he said. That “led to the high number of casualties. We were all there.”

A militant group calling itself the “1920 Brigades” claimed responsibility for the attack, blasting Al-Arabiya as “Americanised spies speaking in Arabic tongue” in a statement posted on the Web.

“We have threatened them to no avail that they are the mouthpiece of the American occupation in Iraq,” the statement said. It warned of more attacks against this “treacherous network.” It was impossible to verify the claim’s authenticity.

The group said Elie Nakouzi – the Christian Lebanese anchor who presents the TV programme “From Iraq” – is No. 1 on their hit list. Nakouzi used to present the programme from the network’s offices in Baghdad before he was relocated to their studios in Dubai amid fears he would be targeted.

Meanwhile, south of Baghdad, witnesses said Iraqi forces opened fire and threw hand grenades, hitting three minibuses and three vans, after a US convoy came under attack Saturday

Abdul Razzaq al-Janabi, director of Iskandariyah General Hospital, said 14 people were killed and 10 others injured. More wounded were taken to other hospitals.

An Associated Press cameraman saw at least 18 bodies, while witnesses said there were more than 20 people killed in the incident.

The footage also showed the morgue of the hospital in nearby Iskandariyah packed with bodies stacked on top of each other.

The shooting came after an American convoy was attacked on the road, witnesses said. Al-Janabi said some of the victims told him three improvised explosive devices detonated near the US convoy.

After the US troops pulled out, Iraqi police and National Guards arrived on the scene and began firing wildly, the witnesses said.

Witnesses said police also broke into the Osama bin Zayd mosque in the same area and detained its cleric and two guards.

Mohammed Bashar al-Faydhi, a spokesman for the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, called for a government investigation into “this massacre, because it is a big disaster that the Iraqi policemen are carrying out such crimes.”

US and Iraqi commanders are planning a new assault on Fallujah in a bid to tame insurgents before the elections. Up to 5,000 Islamic militants, Saddam Hussein loyalists and common criminals are hunkered down in the city and it is believed many of the city’s 300,000 residents have already fled the city.