Insurgents destroy two voting centers near Fallujah

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-01/27/content_2515768.htm

FALLUJAH, Iraq, Jan. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Insurgents detonated two voting centers near the flashpoint Iraqi city of Fallujah on late Wednesday, 12 hours after they were opened, witnesses said Thursday.

"US troops opened two voting centers in Ameriyat al-Fallujah, some 7 km southwest of Fallujah. The two centers were nothing but two shops which were detonated 12 hours after being opened," the witnesses told Xinhua.

Moreover, US tanks called on Fallujah residents through loudspeakers to go to the US base on Sunday to vote after it seems impossible to open election centers in the city, according to the witnesses.

.....voting on US bases? I am sure there will be a huge turnout. :eyes:

"election."

know the targets, eh?

IRR 012605

US forces had ordered refugees from the city, who had
left during the days of intense fighting, to return home.
The Americans then threatened that they would be blowing
up the houses of those who fail to go home quick
enough.

The correspondent reports that the Americans’ sense of
urgency in re-inhabiting al-Fallujah is prompted by their desire
to surround themselves with large number of civilians in
the hopes that the Resistance will then have a harder time
of attacking the invaders. They also seek to
“normalize”
their occupation authority over the city.

Iraqi Resistance shoots down US helicopter, killing 31 Marines near ar-Rutbah.

Local witnesses told Markarat al-Islam that they hoped the
Arab and Islamic news media would come and take pictures
of the extent of the losses, which are what the local
Resistance inflicts on the Americans every day. They said
that the Americans were forced to announce the downing of
this helicopter – something they seldom do –
because numerous delegations of people from Baghdad
and other provinces were scheduled to arrive in ar-
Rutbah Wednesday and some of them were bound to have
seen the crash or heard about it.

The Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent reported that a
local amateur photographer managed to take a video of
the wreckage of the helicopter and hid it in his shoe
when passing through one of the checkpoints thrown up by
the Americans around the crash zone. The amateur
cameraman pledged to gave the film to the Mafkarat al-
Islam correspondent so still pictures from it can be shown
on the website as soon as the cassette arrives in the
editorial office. The photographer told the correspondent, “If
I knew that a satellite TVstation would broadcast it, I would
have given it to them, but unfortunately there’s nobody else
here that I can give the cassette
to.”

US landing ends in Resistance victory; 14 American troops reported killed in Hit.

US forces carried out a helicopter-born landing in the
industrial zone east of Hit at 12 noon Wednesday, arresting
five shopkeepers in the area. Iraqi Resistance forces
clashed with the American attackers in the same
neighborhood 15 minutes after they landed starting a battle
that lasted over an hour and resulted in the deaths of 14
US troops and the wounding of seven others. One
Apache helicopter that had landed was also destroyed.
Nine Iraqi Resistance fighters were martyred in the
fighting.

Resistance shoots down US Apache helicopter Wednesday evening in Hit.

Iraqi Resistance forces fired a Strela surface-to-air rocket at
a US Apache helicopter over the city of Hit at 5:30pm
Wednesday evening. Witnesses told Mafkarat al-Islam that
the rocket struck the helicopter directly, causing it to blow up
in mid-air, scattering wreckage and débris down on rooftops
of buildings in the al-Mu‘allimin neighborhood of the
city.

In a dispatch posted at 7:20pm Mecca time Wednesday
evening, the Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent reported that as
he wrote up his report, the burning wreckage of the
helicopter still lay atop the roofs of four houses in the
area, American troops unable to get to it because
the Resistance was present in the streets in the
area.